The high status and traditional importance of shark fin soup in Chinese and related cultures is causing world wide devastation of these keystone predators. After 400 million years of playing a key role in the world’s oceans, sharks could now be wiped out in a generation. Shark finning is also a particularly cruel form of fishing, in which the fins of the live shark are sliced off, and the shark dumped back into the ocean to bleed to death.
Banning shark finning has been ineffective. Now, California is considering a bill to ban the possession or use of shark fins, and is facing accusations of racism against Chinese. I wish the Chinese community would take the lead on finding a solution they would support. Is anyone out there interested in doing so?