How about 100,000 sharks?
Nope, try higher.
Okay, 400,000?
Try again.
Alright, if you're going to be smart alecky about it, I'll say a million sharks?
Nice try. But still wrong.
The answer is anywhere from 10 to 100 million sharks, with a median average of 38 million sharks.
Yes, I'm-deadly-serious-look-me- straight-in-the-eye millions of sharks a year are mutilated and slaughtered just so people can have their soup.
Photograph by Laurent Fievet/AFP/Getty Images
"Sharks existed before there were dinosaurs and they pre-date humans by millions of years. Yet, in a relatively short period of time, humans and their technological arsenal have driven most shark populations to the verge of extinction."
And just to be insanely 'consumeristic' and wasteful, some creatures posing as humans...
Mama gnome describes them so because she cannot imagine anything more inhumane...
...these so called humans deliberately hack off the fins and tail before dumping the shark back into the waters to sink and suffocate in the bottom of the ocean or be eaten by other predators.
At the end of this deadly chain are humans who eat shark fin soup mainly for status and show.
The fins reportedly don't even have a taste. They're cartilages.
So people go to restaurants to eat something they can't even taste just for "status."
Some people consume shark products for reportedly "medicinal purposes."
But the United States' Food and Drug Administration warn consuming shark fin/meat is dangerous because of high levels of mercury which can cause serious medical problems including sterility in men, birth defects, loss of coordination, blindness and even death.
The humans who consume shark fin soups or dishes are not restricted to Asian countries.
They are everywhere including Europe and the United States.
The countries who supply shark fins and/or meat include: Canada, Spain (the largest supplier in Europe), United Kingdom, Norway, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, U.A.E, United States, Yemen, India, Japan, Mexico.
"Hongkong handles 50% to 80% of world trade in shark fins."
According to Peter Knights, Executive Director of WildAid:
"Sharks are the tigers and lions and cheetahs and leopards of the sea. And if we lose them—these top predators—there will be long-term damage...They're slow reproducing, late to mature, more like mammals than fish in their biology—and we're completely trashing them. There's virtually no management of shark fisheries around the world. We're playing with fire."
video from: NYParisFilms
Mama gnome is grateful to Representative Madeline Bordallo of Guam for introducing the Shark Conservation Act of 2009.
"After passing the house, Senator John Kerry introduced the bill into the Senate, where it is currently pending. The bill would make already existing shark finning laws stronger."
What can we do?
Boycott restaurants and businesses who trade in shark fins and shark products.
Let your senator know you support the Shark Conservation Act.
Support laws banning the trade of sharks and shark fins.
Mama gnome urges everyone who reads this blog to educate other people about this crisis:
Sharks are being obliterated,
just for soup.
Please go Green.
(c) 2009 Jenaelha, Friendly Gnome's Blog.
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2 comments:
This is so sad! I hope that worldwide governments will step up save the sharks and ban fishing for them! But they are tuff for most of the public to love because of most people's fear of them.
I agree with you Green Gnome. It is sad and hopefully people will realize sharks are just as important in our ocean's ecosystem and without them we'll all be in trouble.
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