Lots of people do not see finning sharks for soup as such a bad thing (they kill people, you know?). Sharks are still more beneficial to the marine environment than many know. Not only are shark populations drastically declining, the fins offer no taste to the soup, solely texture.
Shark Fin Soup dates all the way back to the Sung Dynasty (968 AD) when an emperor invented the dish to express his power, wealth and generosity as he served it to his elite guests. Since, it is still rendered as a dish that is cooked for special occasions and represents respect; it has now become much more popular and is served more commonly. What started out as a polite gesture has turned into sharks fighting for their species' survival. The fin soup industry is huge in Asian cuisine, but even American restaurants are partaking in the "delicacy." And although it is 'hip' to try new, culturally renowned dishes, many don't know they are consuming endangered species. The Pew Environment Group found at-risk sharks being served in every single restaurant they tested, from Boston to Los Angeles and twelve more cities in between.
But seriously, why should we care if some sharks go extinct? They do kill up to five people every year. But this is the funny part. Death from choking on a hot dog is 14 times more likely to happen than becoming human leg soup (get it?). There are literally hundreds of species of sharks, and only ten of them are remotely dangerous to humans. Three species of shark - the great white, bull and tiger sharks are responsible for over half of all lethal attacks. So stay away from those three and you're pretty safe- I'd worry much more about applying sunscreen, strong currents and jellyfish. The movie Jaws has really set up some backwards stereotypes: sharks don't eat people, people eat sharks.
Shark fin soup is a dish for special occasions, so that many sharks can't be in harm's way, right? Well, if you think about it, being a favorite Asian dish, and seeing as there are 4.3 billion people living in Asia, as well as many other cultures taking part, you end up with a lot of dead sharks. And not all shark deaths go to soup. Killings happen when sharks become bycatches of fishers' lines and nets. As a result, shark populations have dwindled extremely low. Based on an analysis of average shark weights, about 97 million sharks are killed each year. This has exceeded the average rebound rate for many shark populations, estimated from the life history information on 62 shark species (rebound rates averaged 4.9% per year), and has explained the ongoing decline in most populations for which data exists. Sharks are unfortunately being killed even when they aren't hunted, but added to the number of people partaking in the soup, many species face extinction.
These 97 million dead sharks are a result of the high demand for the fins, which are very valuable (usually $100 a bowl), as well as the lack of effective finning regulations in most fishing areas. Thus is was estimated that 80% (908,000 tons) of discarded sharks, were finned, while the remained (227,000 tons) were released alive. Here is a big difference between fishing and shark finning. Fishes are completely eaten, usually their heads and spines are the only parts discarded. Sharks are finned and tossed back. A portion of the sharks that are released alive suffer post-release mortality due to injury and stress. These fisherman take away sharks' ability to swim, so they sink until their hearts stop. To environmentalists, a pack of dead sharks is a scarier picture than a pack of circling sharks. Why? Because sharks are important.
It is the case of the butterfly effect. You take one thing out of an equation and this change disrupts the rest of the process. So if we take sharks out of the ocean, which at this point is not hard to imagine, our marine ecosystem takes a hit. Sharks are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of their food chain, and they provide a sort of order to other marine animals. Apex predators also provide greater biodiversity and higher densities of individuals, while areas without apex predators experience species absences. Sharks help maintain the health of ocean ecosystems by promoting biodiversity. They have a mutualistic relationship with coral reefs because they eat the fish who deplete the seabed grass, yet the reefs provide a buffet for the sharks. By preventing one species from monopolizing a limited resource, predators increase the species diversity of the ecosystem. So having this healthy food chain will actually promote other fish populations and keep our seagrass beds around. There are more environmental reasons to protect our friends, but they also hold economic benefits as well.
Sharks are a huge attraction for tourists, and divers cite sharks as the main appeal when choosing their travel destination. A study in Palau quantified the economic benefits of its shark-diving industry. The estimated value of an individual reef shark to the tourism industry was $179,000, annually, or $1.9 million over its lifetime. On the other hand, a single dead reef shark would only bring about $108, around the usual cost of a bowl of shark fin soup. So take away the sharks, take away an industry, take away a healthy ecosystem.
The importance of sharks is clear. They are worth far more alive than dead. So in order to stop shark finning, laws must be in place and appetites must be eased. The former chef de cuisine at the French Laundry in San Francisco has proven that shark fins can be replaced by other non-endangered seafood or faux shark fins. The taste comes from the soup, while the fins are valued for their texture; it is essentially symbolic. So there is a way to still enjoy tofu shark fin soup, while saving an extra $90 bucks on a meal and you know, preventing further upset to our marine ecosystems. The demand for shark fin soup is threatening one-third of open ocean sharks with extinction; it is incredibly hard to replenish shark species once they are lost, and it is only a short time before other species start feeling the negative effects of their disappearances.
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