The Tale of Shark Finning

They say seeing is believing. With that being said, this is a fair warning to the graphic nature of this blog in regards to shark finning. The results of shark finning will see the end of the world as we know it and that time could come sooner than you may think with more and more sharks being killed every day. Their stories sadly will never be told. The story of being dragged onto a boat (equivalent to a person's head being held underwater). The story of having their fins hacked off by a machete one by one. (equivalent to a person's arms and legs being cut off one by one.) The story of being thrown back into the sea to either bleed to death, be eaten by scavengers, or starve to death. (equivalent to a person with no arms or legs being tossed onto a beach and left for dead).  The only story that is there is in the pictures. Sharks have no voice, but the images that have spread on the internet tell the tales that these animals could only hope to have told.

So the tale of shark finning begins. History shows that hundreds of years ago, shark fin soup was given to the Emperor of China as a symbol of status and prosperity. Originally the soup was solely for the Emperor. As time passed though, the soup became a status symbol for anyone who could afford a $100 bowl of soup. Since then shark fin soup has been used in all different kinds of Chinese functions. Now, some people claim that the fight to save sharks is rooted in racism against the Chinese. These claims are totally unfounded. Pockets of Chinese people claim that shark fin soup in deep rooted in Chinese tradition. Which it is not seeing as the Emperor has long since been off the throne and the only tradition was the soup being given to one man, the Emperor. There is no racism involved in the fight to save sharks. In fact, there are many Chinese people that are in the front of the fight to save sharks. The most well known is NBA star Yao Ming. Yao has been the cornerstone of the fight to save sharks for several years now and has helped really bring the plight of sharks to the Chinese people. The following pictures are the harrowing truth of the "tradition" of shark finning. Again, it is not a tradition at all. If it was tradition, I highly doubt that the Chinese government would have banned shark fin soup from all state banquets.

Final Warning: The following images are graphic in nature. Some reminders... Sharks reproduce very slowly, so any shark that is killed does impact the population. Adult sharks are not the only targets, babies are finned just as the adults are. Sharks are often still alive through the finning process. Sharks cannot swim without their fins and simply put, cannot survive without their fins.