I finally managed to get around to watching Gordon Ramsay’s programme, Shark Bait, on the acquisition and trade of shark fins.
Horrifying. Thought-provoking. Saddening.
It maddens me that seemingly so little is being done about the trade – catches are not monitored, and there’s little control over the size of the sharks caught. One of the fishing boats in the programme (the only one Ramsay was allowed to board to watch the catch being brought in) had 800 hooks on a line 12 miles long. Not to mention the fact that the boat was out at sea for a month. Do the maths. The sharks being caught weren’t even adults – they were yearlings, if you were lucky, and even then they were finned and thrown into the hold.
And let’s not forget that most larger sharks are simply finned and dumped overboard. Alive. Bunny-huggers bang on about how our meat is slaughtered, but at the very least we kill the bloody thing before we start cutting it up! 😡
30 tons of fins were brought in by one boat. Again, more maths. The fins make up about 5% of just one shark.
Sharks take years to reach sexual maturity, and even then they don’t produce anywhere near the numbers of young that bony fish (like cod, for instance) do. Some of the sharks shown in the programme (the silky shark) produce a litter of, at most, two dozen every couple of years. Some others, like the family that includes the great white, produce even fewer. And yet more, like the sand tigers which are a favourite of the aquarium scene, produce fewer than that.
A note at the end of the programme mentioned that the Costa Rican government had closed all privately-owned fishing docks in order to combat the trade, and that four high-profile Chinese restaurants in London had removed shark fin soup from their menus altogether. It’s a start, at least.
The thing is, I know that most people won’t be that bothered. “It’s a shark, why should we care?” People SHOULD care, because at the rate they’re being fished these fascinating beasts won’t be around forever – and they managed for nearly 400million years before mankind came along.
By: tornado64 - 30th January 2011 at 09:44
lets not forget we nearly fished cod till the end of the road till we knew better
the thing is few realise in our privaliged possitions just what some people have to do so thier fammilies are not hungry this week
especialy when there is nothing else
they may not like it and if oppertunities existed else where to feed thier familys i’m sure they would do that instead
By: Sky High - 30th January 2011 at 07:55
Seeing the acts listed above as barbarism is parochial. The world, like it or not, is a diverse range of cultures and attitudes – it is arrogant to see Western values as those which should be the standard. I do not condone any act of barbarism or cruelty per se, but I do accept that there are those who have entirely different cultural values and they cannot be wrong. It is what they are.
By: A225HVY - 30th January 2011 at 07:09
Them Mr Ramsey had been shark fishing himself!!!!
By: DrPepper - 29th January 2011 at 19:47
There are many many many many (repeat times infinity) cases of animal cruelty or human barbarism going on in this world. As has been said it’s just sad that a lot of people only give a damn when a celeb’ appears on tv or in the paper making us aware of it. For example, what about:
Shark fishermen in Asia using LIVE stray dogs and cats as bait to catch sharks
Tigers being killed for “exotic medicine”
Whales being hunted by Native Americans for tradition (anyone remember this a few years ago? Was raised by the media as non-natives…IE TOURISTS…were allowed “for a fee” to participate….the tourists using the very traditional M-16s and other assault rifles to kill these beautful creatures)
Rhino’s and Elephants still being hunted to extinction
Even fox hunting and badger baiting could be included for petes sake
The list goes on and on…and on and on and on and on and on…
By: Sky High - 26th January 2011 at 10:24
The problem is that one man’s barbarism is another man’s way of making a living. Wide can only judge things from our perspective, which is not necessarily shared by others. I am not condoning the practice merely trying to add a note of reality to the problem. I am not convinced that having the profile raised by a Western celebrity chef will make a great deal of difference. I hope I am wrong.:(
By: Bob - 26th January 2011 at 09:21
Daz,
Why does it always seem to take some ‘celeb’ to bring these barbaric methods to people’s attention? Finning has been going on for years – I have been aware of it for a long time. Unfortunately it is the far east that drives this industry along with their need for ‘exotic’ remedies such a tiger penis and bear gall bladder bile – where are the ‘stars’ to bring an end to these species endangering practices?
There is the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji in Japan – pods of dolphins and whales driven into a small cove where they are slaughtered in the shallows, juveniles included. At least some celebs seem to have joined that campaign. And the final destination for these beautiful intelligent creatures? Some greedy diner in a restaurant in Nippon…
Like whales and dolphins, sharks are at the mercy of man’s ingenuity at destroying species en masse solely to satisfy their palette – next time you go to a Chinese restaurant and you spot Shark Fin Soup on the menu you’ll walk back out after telling them why they won’t get your custom. Or think twice about paying to watch that cute dolphin doing tricks for fish treats at ______ World (fill in the space as applicable).
I could go on but would sound like some eco warrior on a mission and no doubt there will be someone spouting about ‘tradition’ or ‘culture’ we have no right in interfering with.
So while I don’t particularily like GR if he, as someone high up in the restaurant world, can bring about the demise of finning “%!?@ing well done”…
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January 26, 2011 at 7:09 am