Hawk, I decided you aren't joking.
Of course I'm not joking. Back in 1994, while serving on a Military mission in S. Panama, I used to watch the children go out almost every morning to catch sharks for their fins. They didn't use the carcass for anything else.. They just cut off the fins to sell for $50/lb in Panama City. Just incredible waste, but I couldn't really blame them because this was a good source of money for them.
That was my first exposure to the curse that is Shark Fin soup.
I'm not an eco-wacko, in general, but I firmly believe in managing natural resources for human use. Unfortunately, since it's nearly impossible to have "farm raised" shark meat, the only means of supplying this market is by driving the wild shark population to near extinction.
I'm also not big on how they harvest dolphins. But again, when the natural resource is depleted, regulatory powers need to step in. Because we know that the rarer a resource becomes, the more "desirable" it becomes to the elite, who will pay any cost to sample it.
As for the whether we should intentionally deplete the ocean shark population, even I would resent such a disruption of the ecosystem and the unforeseen consequences that may have. The very real possibility is that the prey they subsist on will have their DNA diluted by less robust, or sickness prone, populations normally purged by shark predation.
But if only out of principle, we should manage natural resources, not destroy them.
Edit: Apex predatory sharks also eat many rays and other secondary predators which prey on Scallops and other shellfish (most of which I LOVE TO EAT.. ;)
guardian.co.uk
Hawk |
