Shark Fin Soup // Current TV

Pacific Reef Shark Populations Are Plummeting | Photos

CNN... . Pacific reef shark populations plummeting, study says By Matthew... more

EthicalVegan
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30 days ago
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Sharkwater / Click Here To Save Sharks

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it... more

covelogibbs
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6 months ago
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An old joke in a new light

So there’s an old joke that I’m going to paraphrase to start this article... more

baghdadbythebay
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8 months ago
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Gordon Ramsay: Shark Bait!

Gordon Ramsay Held at Gun Point While Filming New TV Show Celebrity chef Gordon... more

Shizon81
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1 year ago
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Ancient Chinese Delicacy, Shark Fin Soup Outlawed in Hawaii: '1st in the World'

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2010/May/29/ln/hawaii5290306.html Shark... more

smokeyroad
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1 year ago
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Maldives Ban Fishing of Sharks

The Maldives will make its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary, a government official said Tuesday, lending momentum to efforts to protect the fish at a United Nations endangered species conference that begins this week.

Maldives becomes the second nation to announce blanket protection for its sharks. Palau, a tiny Micronesian state, in September announced a ban on shark fishing. Like the Maldives, Palau is regarded as one of the world’s top scuba-diving destinations.

The Maldives exclusive economic zone covers about 90,000 square kilometers, or 35,000 square miles, roughly equivalent to the land area of Portugal.

In one sense, the bans represent pure economic logic. Researchers from James Cook University in Australia last year estimated that a single gray reef shark was worth $3,300 a year to the Maldivian tourism industry, compared with the one-time value of $32 that a fisherman would get from the same shark. They found a similar dynamic with regard to sharks on the Great Barrier Reef.

But the bigger issue is a rapid decline in global shark stocks that has alarmed scientists. Up to 30 percent of shark species is threatened with extinction, said Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation at the Pew Environment Group. “If we don’t leave enough in the water, they won’t recover.”

In the United States, the Shark Conservation Act, which would sharply curtail the practice of “finning” — cutting off sharks’ fins and throwing the rest of the animal back into the sea — has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting approval in the Senate.

Mr. Rand said more than 70 million of the fish were killed each year just to support the sharkfin trade. The vast majority of those are sold in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where they are used in sharkfin soup. Fins can fetch as much as $120 per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, in Hong Kong.

“Sharks don’t have the ability to rebound,” he said. “They grow slowly and they’re late to mature.”

Some sharks do not reach maturity until they are more than 10 years old and even then have only a few pups, so the stock cannot reproduce rapidly enough to make up for overfishing.The Maldives will make its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary, a government... more

jefftego
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2 years ago
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Attacking the king of the ocean: The sharks that can't fight back

On my first open water dive in Hawaii I swam near a shark. Even though it demonstrated nothing but shy and skiddish behavior I couldn’t get that d#!# Jaws theme music out of my head. And for good reason, when most people hear the word shark, they think about the Great White shark, the king of the oceans, the top predator on the planet.

While attending the Ocean Film Festival this weekend I watched Requiem (while the film was too long and required patience to endure inexperienced filmmaking), it was worth it to see the awesome underwater footage as the filmmaker followed an underwater photographer from Hawaii as she familiarized herself with with the beauty, power and skills of one of the most infamous classification of sharks – the REQUIEM Family.

The film was filled with plenty of staggering facts such as three sharks are killed every second, 1 million are killed a year, and a myriad of fun comparison stats that compared shark attacks to the regular hazards on living on land such as in 1991 there were 1,300 deaths by bicycles and 4 deaths by sharks. The most staggering information was that many sharks are caught only to have their fins removed and then thrown back in the water and that while there is 350 or so species of sharks, 79 are imperiled.

Why should we care about these giants in the ocean that most of us will never come in contact with? Well…because they are what is considered a “keystone species“, in other words, they have a major influence on their entire environment. At the sustainable seafood pannel the following example was provided to illustrate the role and influence of sharks in the ecosystem: when the sharks disappear, there is an abundance of weak and diseased fish, which then influences the rate of the algae, which in turn influences the amount of oxygen in the water, which then influences the ability for all species in the area to survive. So in other words, if you want to keep eating your salmon and halibut, you might want to consider making sure that we don’t kill off all of the sharks.

How can you engage?

1. Learn more at wildaid, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Adopt A Shark, or the Shark Foundation.

2. Help get the information out to countries who are affected by the actions of their government but might not have access to the information (hello Twitter. We got a small thrill when one of our tweets about sea horse annihilation was translated and retweeted in Japanese, given that at the sustainable seafood panel one of the speakers stated that they did not have an education system in place to inform the Japanese population about the effects of the Japanese government policies).

3. Contact your local seafood restaurants and educate them about the dangers of shark fin soup. I felt a little nieve and shocked to find out that they serve shark fin soup right here in San Francisco (and if you want to get really crazy, start a campaign that educates the consumers at the restaurant about the dangers of shark fin soup).

Number of sharks that died while you read this post: approx 120

If you want to see more shark videos: check the blog post: http://blogs.current.com/green/2010/02/08/attacking-the-king-of-the-ocean-the-sharks-that-cant-fight-back-video/On my first open water dive in Hawaii I swam near a shark. Even though it demonstrated... more

leahl
added this
2 years ago
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7 comments

Shark Fin Soup is bad for your health.

http://sharkfinsouptheyellowperil.blogspot.com/ The embarrassing and devastating... more

seawitchartist
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Yao Ming aims to quell China's appetite for shark fin

NBA star Yao Ming urged China on Friday to say no to shark fin soup to stop the... more

jefftego
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

The Shark Con Trailer - A movie that supports the killing of the sharks

This movie and I say movie because it is not a documentary is DISGUSTING! Who are... more

lookatmypix
added this
2 years ago
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6 comments

DNA reveals origins of shark fin soup

Every year, millions of shark fins are sold at Chinese markets to satisfy the demand... more

pandaman2105
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2 years ago
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Manta rays next on restaurant menus as shark populations plummet

Conservationists fear a falling shark population is prompting Asian chefs to look for... more

jefftego
added this
3 years ago
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7 comments

Shark fins protection welcomed

Plans for new curbs on the practice of removing fins from live sharks have been... more

jefftego
added this
3 years ago
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0 comments

Shark Fin Soup: Just Say NO!

Killing millions of sharks for just their dorsal & pectoral fins has got to stop!... more

glassdesk
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Great White stalks ocean canoeist

Look out behind you, it's bigger than your kayak!

covelogibbs
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4 years ago
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Pacific Reef Shark Populations Are Plummeting | Photos

Sharkwater / Click Here To Save Sharks

An old joke in a new light

Gordon Ramsay: Shark Bait!

Ancient Chinese Delicacy, Shark Fin Soup Outlawed in Hawaii: '1st in the World'

Maldives Ban Fishing of Sharks

Attacking the king of the ocean: The sharks that can't fight back

Shark Fin Soup is bad for your health.

Yao Ming aims to quell China's appetite for shark fin

The Shark Con Trailer - A movie that supports the killing of the sharks

DNA reveals origins of shark fin soup

Manta rays next on restaurant menus as shark populations plummet

Shark fins protection welcomed

Shark Fin Soup: Just Say NO!

Great White stalks ocean canoeist

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