Shark Fin Soup: A Tradition or Extinction?

As a young child, my mother gave me the nickname of Súp Vây Cá Mập, which translate to shark fin soup. Why did she give me that nickname? That nickname, shark fin soup, is a traditional, expensive dish in Chinese culture, and growing up with that nickname, I always thought that I was symbolizing wealth. But just recently, I found out that nickname also meant shark extinction. Because of this soup’s main ingredient is shark fin, the process of shark finning came to be, killing tons and tons of sharks. How about not making shark fin soup and saving the shark population? I agree to ban shark finning, but there are pros and cons, the pros of saving the sharks but the cons of taking away jobs from those who have to save their own family from hunger and disrespecting a Chinese tradition.

Shark finning is “the process of slicing off a shark’s fin and discarding the rest of the still-living body, often by dumping it back into the ocean”(Fairclough). The reason why fishermen chose to keep the fins and discard the bodies is because the shark’s body have less value compared to their fins. Their fins could sell “as much as $500 per pound ($1,100 per kilogram)”(Fairclough). Even though it is only used in a Chinese dish, there are other countries that had also practiced shark finning. In 2008, based on Oceana table of “Origins of shark fin exports to Hong Kong”, the world’s top exporters were Spain, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, and United Arab Emirates. Even the United States of America was on the list and is one of the top 10 countries that have exported shark fins to Hong Kong. Shark finning also caused the 14 shark species population to decrease dramatically to the point of extinction. Even though the main cause of shark species extinction is from shark finning, another factor would be how they