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Dead in their hundreds on the dock, the sharks who have been slaughtered so Japan can use their fins for soup
By
Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:58 AM on 18th July 2010
Their bodies rotting on the floor of a Japanese dock, these sharks have been killed for one thing: their fins.
Like the slaves who walked the rows of cotton in America's Southern plantations 200 years ago, Japanese workers move silently between the bodies hacking off the fins and catching them in buckets.
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Slaughter: Rows of dead sharks lay on a dock in the Japanese city of Kesen-numa after their fins were hacked off to be used for soup
Japanese delicacy: A bowl of shark fin soup on a restaurant table
They are then sent by the tonne to cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai - where the 'premium' meat is turned in to a delicacy.
Chinese will pay higher prices for the fins - but much of this haul will go to local destinations.
The slaughter occurs on an industrial scale.
Meanwhile, the world's shark populations are decreasing faster than BP's share price after the oil spill.
The population of the scalloped hammerhead shark alone is down 98 per cent.
But the lucrative trade carries on in all its bloody horror. In the above one photograph alone, bodies weighing up to 75 tonnes can be seen piled on the floor.
Many factory owners throw their doors open to tourists and sea food aficionados so they can watch the shocking spectacle.
At this factory, at least, the rest of the shark's body is also put to use for food and products. Salmon shark heart sashimi is considered a local delicacy.
But much of the trade is also carried out on the open sea, far away from prying eyes. There the practice is to simply hack the fin from the body - and discard the rest.
Photographer Alex Hofford was horrified when he visited this factory in the Japanese city of Kesen-numa.
The Briton had to wade through pools of blood to capture these images, which he described as 'hellish'.
The practice has been going on for several centuries - but new fishing technology means that sharks are being hauled in in greater numbers than ever before.
It is looking less and less likely that species such as the scalloped hammerhead can survive Japan's defiant stance on shark fin soup.
In the movie, the Cove, Japanese fishermans got angry for the Cove staff. There's no explanation for that in the movie.
Japanese media asked the fisherman why he got so angry. The reason was "Sea Shepherd Conservation Society"(SS). They visited there many times and often cut net which is illigal. And there are many SS menbers in the movie staff. For example, the actress in the movie is a wife of SS member.
Do you know how was the movie taken?
The actress visited there and cried suddenly when there's no fishing. People watching that thought funny af the actress cried suddenly watching sea nothing happened. And they used the video and old dolphin fishing vided that no longer done in Japan and mixed both, as if the actress were crying watching the cruel dolphin fishing.
- Sad, Japan, 20/7/2010 02:41
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