Extinction in a bowl of soup
When we think about sharks fin, the first thing that hits our mind is the prized Chinese delicacy served at weddings and New Year celebrations. What makes it such a highly valued dish in celebrations came about through false beliefs and superstitions.
Aside from it’s high price and rarity, sharks fin itself has no taste and consuming it gives no essential nutritional value. In short, there is so much pain and suffering endured for one reason: luxury.
Up to 100 million sharks are killed every year to make this celebratory exquisite soup. And these sharks are harvested merely for their fins.
They are pulled up onto fishing boats where their fins are chopped off while they are still fully conscious and alive. Their finless bodies are then dumped back into the ocean as waste. The bodies (shark meat) are usually not kept due to lack of space on fishing boats… it fetches a low price as compared to the fins.
The decrease in the shark population is not without consequence. Whether we like or dislike sharks, we cannot deny the fact that they play a key role in maintaining the balance of the ocean ecosystem. The shark population cannot withstand commercial fishing the way other marine species can. Unlike other fish harvested from the wild, sharks grow slowly, reach sexual maturity later, and have fewer offspring at a time.
Due to these conditions, the world’s shark population has declined as much as 75%.
Lately, the fight to stop the cruel practice of shark finning has been brought more and more into the spotlight. Celebrities in several countries have taken a stand to start campaigning against shark fin sale, trade and consumption.
This beautiful country of Malaysia is no exception! It is wonderful that our local celebrities in Malaysia have also joined hands to put a stop to shark fin consumption. The video below was filmed as part of the project named ‘Save our sharks from a bowl of soup’. Local celebrities got together in an effort to raise awareness of the campaign against shark fin.
The celebrities include Amber Chia, Pietro Felix, Desmond Warren and several others. It has just been recently released for public viewing.
Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Save-Our-Sharks-From-A-Bowl-Of-Soup-(SOSFABOS)-PSA-on-Shark .flv
Don’t think that just because shark fin soup is consumed once or twice a year, it won’t make a difference if just one person stops eating. When the demand stops, the supply does too… and the part we play as a consumer makes a difference. Don’t blame it on tradition, because tradition shouldn’t lead us to support cruelty; instead it should teach us kindness.
Now that we know the truth behind the shark fin industry, act out of kindness and say no to shark’s fin soup. Please stop eating meat. Stop eating animals. Never hurt or abuse animals. It’s not good for them or yourself.
Tsem Rinpoche
If you care, you can go to this link http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-exporting-shark-fins-from-peru/
and sign the petition on stopping exporting shark fins from peru to asia, that it where you guyes live!
I think that Shark Fin is horrible. It has no taste. I think people would eat it because it is an “exotic” type of food. I rather have the vegetarian type in Kechara Oasis. It taste better. The shark fin has no benefits and it creates a lot of bad karma because not only the shark dies, it dies slowly and painfully. I never want to eat extinction in a bowl.
As sharks is on the top of the food chain, they contain more mercury in their bodies than those from the lower food chain. Consuming shark fins has no proven medical benefit, and consumption in large quantity may cause sterility in men. FDA also recommends pregnant women and children to avoid consuming shark fins. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_fin_soup)
Mercury may also cause damage to the brain, kidneys and lungs (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning)
I love Shark’s fin soup…. without the dead fins swimming in it. There are many, many varieties of soup in Chinese cuisine that tastes just like Sharks fin soup without the fins of course. I don’t even notice that the fins are not in it! One of my very favourite is Szechuan hot and sour soup, that taste almost similar to Shark’s fin and can be made vegetarian! I have tried this one in Esquire kitchen Chinese restaurant here in Malaysia.
Another is the Daylily bud soup (totally vegetarian) from the Eat Healthy Daily recipe book by Kechara Media and Publications. So I can still enjoy my favourite ‘Shark’s fin soup’ without the fins. Check it out. The recipe book is available at http://vajrasecrets.com/products-by-category/books/english-books/eat-healthy-daily.html
Did you know that the amount of shark’s fin soup served at a Chinese wedding dinner is equivalent to killing 40 sharks? Say NO to shark’s fin soup!
This pricey sharksfin soup of rarity are proudly favoured by the chinese at any celebrations and occassions of granduer, especially at chinese wedding ceremony. Just imagine – up to more than a 100 million sharks died for the extraction of their fins just to make this exqusit soup of luxury, as a result of which, the world’s sharks population declined by 75% of their numbers leaving the possibilities of it going to extinction highly eminent. For the sake of our ocean ecosystem, and the agony, abuse, pains and sufferings endured by our fellow shark sentient beings, all these cruelties and animal indecencies should stop. Every bowl of shark’s fin soup that we consumed contains the soul and fins of the dead shark which had to be killed for our enjoyment – and we are endorsing the killing by eating it!!!!! Don’t give them the reason to kill anymore – Stop eating shark’s fin soup, and/or any animal’s meat. GO VEGETERIAN, DON’T LET ANYONE DIE FOR YOUR MEAL, NO MATTER WHAT!! “Om mani padme hum”.
Shark’s fin as a dish has to be garnished with crab and other meat to make it tasty. In itself, I believe it is rather flat and tasteless.Then when the fins are brutally chopped off the shark, it is just thrown into the sea to die a horrendously painful death.
Shark’s fin doesn’t even have any nutritional value.
THus eating sharks fin soup, as a highly priced delicacy, comes at such great cost – the price of many lives – and to no purpose.As David has said there are equally delicious meatless substitutes(alternatives) for it. Why don’t we go for these instead of taking shark’s fin soup?
Shark fin’s soup is one of the standard dish in a chinese wedding dinner. That’s why I tend to avoid going to chinese wedding dinners. If one really stops to think.. the amount of suffering and lives lost just to hold a typical wedding dinner, It will take away some joy from the joyous occasion. A union of 2 people in love shouldn’t be the cause of of suffering of so many animals. The saddest thing is that 9 out of 10 guests will secretly complain that the food was not good and boring.
Human beings are probably the only species that eats its own environment into extinction. And to think that there is no nutritional value at all in shark’s fin. Shark’s fin soup was originally served at banquets for the host to show off his wealth and to buy “face” value from the guests. In a wedding dinner, it was compulsory for the groom’s family to serve the tasteless dish to avoid being criticized as being a poor family. What a silly notion i.e to have to kill senselessly to get something tasteless and nutrition-less, in order to gain “face”. What is even sillier, is that modern people are still following the idiotic tradition, also for face value.
Isn’t it karma coming back to humans that now we hear alot about sharks biting surfers and swimmers in the ocean??
Say “No” to shark’s fin soup!!!
Humans are the biggest and meanest predator on Earth.Honestly I think I want to incarnate in the Animal realm as I truly feel they are more enlightened than humans will ever be.That’s just my opinion!!
It’s sad – fundamentally, even as is the case with many Buddhists, people just do not understand what kindness and compassion is; what virtuous and non-virtuous actions are; their minds are dominated by so much greed. i also hope people, especially Malaysians would stop eating other animals like the “paddy-chicken”(a type of frogs) etc. The way they kill the animals is terrible – they slit the frogs’ stomach while they are still alive, then skin them. i have seen some frogs with internal organs and muscles still pulsating after going through the terrible procedure of killing. It must be excruciatingly painful; and what about those poor clams and “lallas” that some people scald and fry to death!
today the governor of California signed a law that made trading and possessing shark fins illegal in California.