Argumentative Essay On Fin-Saloity Of Animals

Fin-ality of a Species

What if I told you that the entire population of New York City was killed last year? What if I told you that this year almost 10 times that amount of people were killed this year? There are 8.6 million residents in New York City. Imagine the city empty, void of life, It would be a tragedy beyond comprehension. Unfortunately, this type of mass destruction already happens, just not with humans. We kill an average of 100 million of one species in the ocean a year, an irreplaceable species. Sharks. Sharks are prized for their fins across the world for a rather tasteless, yet prestigious soup called Shark Fin soup. This soup is revered for its health benefits, but is it really worth it?
Our oceans are filled with relics of the past.

All of the species of shark in the area except one, the Mako, have decreased significantly in a 15 year span. The hammerhead, thresher, and white have decreased as much as 75%. Without them, their prey’s population has exploded. Ray, skates, and smaller sharks’ numbers have increased tenfold in the same timespan. The massive increase of these animals have caused many problems for the ecosystem. Their food sources, such as bivalves like the bay scallop, are being overly hunted by the excess amount of small predators. So much that by 2004, the bay scallop numbers decreased so much that North Carolina had to terminate their fishing practices. With the decreasing numbers of scallops, the rays must find something else to survive on because of the increasing competition. Quahog, a clam famously known as an ingredient in clam chowder, is now the next target of the rays. The quahog population has decreased so much that restaurants are being forced to remove the soup from their menus (Griffin). The removal of sharks can be felt throughout the entire ocean, by every species, including