If Leonardo DiCaprio has his way, an expensive and controversial soup may soon be taken off the menu in restaurants throughout New York. Legislation is currently pending in the state to ban the sale of shark fins, the key ingredient in shark fin soup. On Friday, the celebrity tweeted, “We did it in Cali. C'mon #NewYork! RT @Oceana. Time is running out for bill banning trade of #shark fins. Act now: http://ow.ly/biCvC “
A bowl of shark fin soup will cost you $16.50 at the Chin Chin Restaurant in New York City. Along with the sinewy and stringy fin, that bowl comes with some additional sides that would make anyone with a conscience opt for a spring roll instead. For starters, a shark, one of the top predators in the ocean, gave its life for that small bowl of soup. The animal’s fin was cut-off and it was thrown back into the ocean to die. Rob Stewart, star of the documentary Sharkwater, estimates that 100 million sharks are killed annually for their fins.
Experts say that the loss of 100 million sharks annually is more than our oceans can bear. Sharks are considered to be “apex” or top predators. When an apex predator is removed from the ocean, a cataclysmic domino effect takes place and the eco-system begins to slowly unravel. In 2005, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography published results from their study of the relationship between sharks and the health of coral reefs. Per findings of Jordi Bascompte and Carlos Melián:
When sharks are overfished, a cascade of effects can lead to a depletion of important grazers of plant life. This is because there are fewer sharks to feed on carnivorous fish such as grouper-causing an increase in their numbers and their ability to prey on parrotfishes. The removal of plant-eating animals such as parrotfishes has been partly responsible for the shift of Caribbean reefs from coral to algae dominated, the authors note. Thus overfishing of sharks may contribute further to the loss of resistance of coral reefs to multiple human disturbances.
In addition to the destruction of the eco-system, that bowl of soup also packs some pretty noxious neurotoxins. Earlier in 2012, researchers from the University of Miami reported findings from a study of shark fin samples from Florida waters. Dangerously high concentrations of BMAA, a neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease, were present in the samples. “The concentrations of BMAA in the samples are a cause for concern not only in shark fin soup but also in dietary supplements and other forms ingested by humans,” said study co-author Deborah Mash.
Thanks to a nasty encounter with shark fin poachers, Paul Watson, the Founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is now being held in Germany for extradition to Costa Rica. Watson was arrested on May 13 at Frankfurt airport for a 2002 incident involving Costa Rican shark fin poachers in Guatemalan waters. Sea Shepherd maintains that the charges are baseless. Said Watson, “We were given permission to intervene to stop the killing of the sharks by the Guatemalan government. No one was injured and there was no property damage but the Costa Rican poachers accused us of endangering their lives.” Should he be extradited to Costa Rica, Sea Shepherd has expressed strong concerns about Watson’s safety due to the strong presence of a shark fin mafia, which operates illegally in that country.
Much of the international shark fin trade passes through Hong Kong. In March, Sea Shepherd’s Gary Stokes captured footage of thousands of shark fins drying on the sidewalks of Sheung Wan. Said Stokes, “Pectoral fins lined the streets as far as I could see.” He calculated more than 20,000 dead sharks in one city block. Following this discovery, Stokes went on to uncover corruption within the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species or CITES. This organization was created by the United Nations to control the trade in endangered species. According to Stokes, Dr. Giam Choo Hoo is the alternative representative for Asia within CITES. He advises the committee as to what does and what does not get protection. “He has been discovered to be working with the Shark Fin Industry and uses his position to lobby within CITES against any protection for sharks,” Stokes said. The activist has created a petition to remove Dr. Choo Hoo from CITES. Nearly 10,000 have signed since March.
In 2010, Hawaii became the first state in the U.S. to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins. Similar laws have since been passed in Washington and Oregon. Bans are now being sought by lawmakers in Maryland, Illinois and New York. Until the laws are passed, activists are calling on consumers to simply skip the shark fin soup and the restaurants that have it on their menus.
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