The Mississauga councilor bans the exchange of shark fins for goods and services as the reputation of shark finning is negative through media, showing that anyone that takes part in such actions would be labeled the same as those committing the act of violence against sharks. This declination caused Mississauga to be the biggest city in Ontario to ban “shark fins” (Grewal 2011). This judgment has occurred the day before Toronto had to make an appeal to the court for their decision against the topic; Oakville did the same thing as Mississauga on July 2011 (Grewal 2011). After the two municipal governments have decided to ban such a product, there was confusion to whether they actually have the authority to make a call like this. After the argument, …show more content…
For example, in China, the religion thinks highly of respect and how others might judge you and your family. There was this important groom that offered lobster soup instead of the traditional shark fin soup which is looked upon as high regard in any wedding in China. Stating to his visitors that “if we can save “x” amount of sharks, why shouldn’t we?” (Cheong 2009), there was a 20 percent decrease in all shark population and a total of 800 000 ton of shark fin soup being produced. Selling shark could make a lot of money as this new industry was booming and raked in a total of $310 million dollars during its fiscal year. Then a financial crisis occurred causing consumption of the soup to decline from 900 000 to 750 000 (Cheong 2009), and dried seafood market also stopped selling the product because there was a total price drop of 40 percent in the market (Cheong 2009). This leads to the second part of the question as to whether the money is worth the risk and if money is an incentive. Anyone with common sense can tell that shark finning is not humane and shouldn’t be done as this process is wasting a valuable resource (Yaukey 1999). There are a few places in the US where this act is still legal, but they are trying to change it as fast as they can. The number of sharks killed in Hawaii went from 2 000 to 61 000 annually (Yaukey 1999), this number is alarming and can show that there is a serious problem with the way we consume animals. Shark fins can be sold at a cost of up to $50 US dollars per pound (Yaukey 1999), to put this number into existence, a regular dorsal fin can weigh as much as 3-5 pounds. This means that one soup from the dorsal fin can roughly cost $250 US dollars, which shows that money is an incentive to continue this illegal act. Sharks reproduce just as we do and need time to grow their children, but the way we are consuming soups and killing them, sharks will
The bull shark may be responsible for many shark attacks in the world but I believe that we have no right to kill them. Sharks are very important to animals food cycles and if the food cycles get messed up it can greatly effect the world. In fact, the bull shark is more vulnerable to human impact due to their ability to live in fresh and salt water but many sharks that are killed are for either shark fin soup or their liver oil. The sharks liver oil has many uses now but it started as a machine lubricant. Another way that sharks die is by recreational fishing. The sharks can get caught up in the fishermen's nets and eventually suffocate and die. As an environmental community, I feel like we need to inform people about shark habits and how to keep sharks safe. The water is their home and we are
Sharks have also been subjected to medical research, games and competitions, jewellery, souvenirs and cosmetics. We need to take into consideration that sharks play a vital role in the natural world that we live in. it is imperative that we look after these majestic creatures and ensure they remain protected. We need to be aware of the dangers of sharks, swim in protected areas where there are shark nets, and do not swim after dark in the sea (especially not alone) as the sea is the sharks home. Humans should also be wearing wet suits as protection in the ocean. The sea is where they live, they swim freely and they eat – they do not particularly target humans but rather prey on food that is available to them in their habitat.
Australian beaches are some of the best in the world and WA beaches are some of the best in Australia. But this may soon no longer be a view held by everyone if the WA government continues to support and allow the shark culling off Perth's major beaches. Hi I'm Maya Koentgen, a marine biologist, ecologist and fellow beach user, and I'm here to tell you why shark culling needs to stop. At the moment hundreds of innocent sharks are being caught and killed and why? Because they are simply swimming in their own homes that us humans have invaded.
The only way we can help save these poor animals that are older than us is to help spread the word on why shark fining should be banned and how harmful it is and what it’s doing to the environment. Ways to help spread the word can be convincing restaurant managers to stop ordering the soup by informing them of the problems caused by shark fining. Although it may be illegal to go shark fining for shark fin soup it isn’t to prepare the soup. Help show local communities they can make more money by conserving the sharks then killing them or something as simple as not eating the soup.
In addition, I understand that this is a tradition for china to do shark fining, but they need to stop. If they do not, the sharks will be extinct. The people in China will also have a shortage in shark meat. After I read Finning Endangers Sharks, Ocean Ecosystem, and watching Should We Save sharks, I realized how horrible people can be. Due to the ethnical attitudes and behaviors of the people, I
Shark slaughter is a cruel and violent act, to say the least. Granted that there is economical profit to be had from shark finning, the massive loss incomparably outweighs the profit. Most, if not, all humans would not enjoy having their limbs cut off and being left to die. It is simply inhumane and brutal. However sharks are experiencing this very thing, and the fact that they cannot express or protect themselves, is leading to the death of hundreds of millions of innocent sharks annually. Odds are that as you are reading this, a shark was killed. While sharks may not be the most adorable animals on the planet, they certainly are living creatures, and they feel pain just like us.
So if shark finning is such a horrible practice, then why does it still continue? The reason is quite simple: money. It 's mind boggling to see what people will do for a simple piece of paper, and shark finning is no exception. It is estimated that the fins of a shark can sell for up to $500 per pound! With these kind of profit margins, it 's no wonder that restaurants in China still sell shark fin soup.
Back in the dynasty the Emperors would serve the dish to honor the guest, because they believed it had healing benefits from the concurring of a shark (Fairclough, Caty). Fin soup still occurs today even when not on special (Fairclough, Caty). In addition the shark fins for can sell for a pretty penny anywhere from $500 a pound or even $1,000 a kilogram (Fairclough, Caty). As a matter of fact, fishermen in Melbour, Segal would export $1300 pounds worth of shark fins a week. It was recorded that a single adult fin sells for $80 and a two-meter monster can sell for $300. Additionally, 1 out of every 100 sharks reported killed between 2000-2008 comes from these fisherman(Hinshaw, Drew). (commentary) about Its question that fisherman practice “unsustainable finning” because it does pay nice , but the amount of money gained by finning isn’t comparable to how much sharks are worth to our economy. The global value of shark finning is around $630 million but is declining, while shark tourism is worth $312 million and promises to be worth $780 million in 20 years ( source 8). Human activity of finning isn’t the only reason to the decline of Great White sharks, human protection is another
Information (sub-point): The solution to the problem of shark finning is to sign petitions and force the government to pass legislature that will ban shark finning, as well as ban the import of shark fins. In 2000, Bill Clinton signed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 (SFPA), which “banned finning on any fishing vessel within United States territorial waters, and on all U.S.-flagged fishing vessels in international waters” (Speigel, 2011). Currently, it is also illegal to hunt sharks in many parts around the world due to various restrictions set by other government, but it is not illegal to import and sell shark fins. Finding shark fins in the US can be as easy as walking into an Asian restaurant and ordering shark fin soup. If we truly want to make a difference, and see a rise in the shark populations around the world, we need to ban the sell and trade of shark fins
Sharks have been on this earth for nearly 450 billion years. To put that into perspective, the first modern humans date back to about 60,000 years ago ("Our Mission: To save Sharks and Mantas”). Since then, both humans and sharks have evolved into the predatory mammals they are today. However, with the quick development of humans, civilization and technology, humans have not been able to fully understand the ways of sharks, although the motives of other human celebrities have been easy to understand and decipher. Because shark attacks have been becoming more televised, and sharks have been known to be more of a “threat” to humans, shark research foundations, such as the Shark Research Institute and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, have been created to help give an understanding to these creatures. Over 100 million sharks are being killed each year, and there is a counter on the Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation website. As one spends more time on the home page, the number on the counter is constantly increasing, showing how many sharks are slaughtered in the year to come (“Bite-Back – Shark and Marine Conservation”). Even with research to show that sharks are valuable to the ocean and vulnerable, there are people that think otherwise (“The Pelagic Shark ...
In Chinese tradition, Shark fin soup is called as “a celebration soup”, which people eat it to celebrate in various occasions. Moreover, people also believed that shark fin consisted of diverse nutrition values which provide them virility, wealth, and power(Wolchover, 2011). These beliefs lead to the beginning of poaching for sharks, the top of food chain in the sea world. Surprisingly, although people are aware of the decreasing number of sharks since the old days, around hundred million of sharks are still hunted each year(Heltus, 2013), to be served on luxury tables surrounded by those believers in things that they do not even prove whether the belief is reliable. Therefore, in the generation that people are mostly educated, sharks should no longer have to be continuously killed for their fins.
Sharks appear to be very vicious creatures that will eat or kill anything in its path. People think that all sharks are harmful and deadly to humans. However, research shows that this statement is not true. Sharks can be trained and tamed. They are just like big, aquatic dogs. Only about 2 dozen types of sharks are potentially harmful to humans. Shark attacks are also much more uncommon than one may think. Despite their fearsome appearances, sharks are not as vicious as they look.
According to Animal Planet, sharks, on average, kill ten humans per year, while humans kill eighty-eight to one hundred million sharks per year. Humans hunt sharks for their meat, internal organs, skin, and primarily for their fins in order to make products such as lubricants, make-up, and mainly shark fin soup. The growing Chinese economy has cause an increase in the demand for shark fin soup. Some species of sharks have reduced over 90% in population for a bowl of soup that has no scientifically proven nutritional value. The poaching of sharks as seen in the shark fin trade should cease because it causes a collapse of the marine ecosystem and endangers the shark species.
Demand, revenue, cost, and profit are the driving forces behind any economy. This notion is taught to most students in grade school and will carry on through the rest of their lives helping them make the most educated decisions they can. Logically, the greater the demand for something, the greater the profit will be. Whaling used to be a sizable part of the economy, due to the innumerable uses of a whale’s by-products, and consequently, there was a substantial profit margin. Presently, the largest demand for whaling is by Japan, Norway, and Iceland all of whom partake in whaling for either commercial or “research” purposes. However, the demand and revenue from whaling do not outweigh the costs that have tolled on the species. This practice is largely scrutinized by conservationists who believe that commercial whaling is going to bring some species of whales to extinction. The current demand for whaling is incredibly low; however, it is still necessary to continue the ban on commercial whaling.
Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, or pirate fishing, is a huge threat to the marine environment, it's bio diversity in food development is dependent on it. Losses due to pirate fishing are estimated to be between 10-23.5 billion U.S. dollars per year. Representing 11-26 million tons of fish. West African waters are estimated to have the highest levels of pirate fishing in the world. Fish is a crucial source of protein for millions of people. Fishing is the major coastal employment along the coast's. During a dramatic two year investigation, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has documented mass amounts of pirate fishing on the West Coast of Africa. Pirate fishermen are literally out of control. They are fishing in protected areas, destroying local fishermens nets and sabotaging them, hiding their names, and shipping their catch illegally at sea. They evade arrest, attack local fishermen, and abusing their own crews. The catches of these pirates have been entering the EU. the worlds largest import market for seafood. This is despite a new EU regulation. The regulation requires all fish imported into Europe to be accompanied by a catch certificate that asks for name, address, validating authority, fishing vessel name, license, and homeport. This is all declares that the catches have been declared legal.y 90% of the vessels documented by EJF fishing illegally are bottom trawlers. Bottom trawlers are are vessels that drag heavy nets across the sea bed catching all marine life in their path. Up to 75% of call the catches made on these vessels are dumped back into the sea, dead or dying. Fish is the principal source of protein for 2.9 billion people. But the United Nations recognizes 80% of the world's fisheries are e...