Shark Finning Ted Talk by Candace

Shark Finning Ted Talk by Candace - July 2017 Scholarship Essay

In today’s world, there are serious crises that are said to seriously affect our day to day lives and our near future. Global warming, terrorism, obesity, health care, and the oil crisis are all issues plastered into the minds of today, but one vital issue has gone unnoticed. Recent decline in shark population due to shark finning is seriously affecting our ocean’s ecosystem. Shark finning has the potential to wipe out mankind. Without sharks in the ocean, fish and other ocean animals will overpopulate and live off all of the plant life in the sea. As soon as sea plant life disappears, so will the vital oxygen that the ocean produces that keeps us alive.
Shark finning is a brutal practice only used for one thing, an Asian delicacy known as shark-fin soup. Shark finning has been going on for many years, but in recent years the shark fatalities have reached unfathomable amounts. An estimated 100 million sharks are killed every year for their shark fins alone (Stewart). That results in the death of three sharks every second. Sharks are caught be the masses and are hacked up with 8 inch boning knives. With these knives, shark fisherman cut off the tail, fin, and dorsal fin. In Asia, these fins can sell for as much as 700 dollars per kilogram, and soups sell for as much as 350 dollars per bowl (Pellissier). Long lining is the way sharks are caught by the masses. It is a fishing technique that sets up large baited sharp hooks on long stretches of line that could catch hundreds and thousands of sharks at once (Stewart).These sharks are alive, with sensitive nervous systems when they are chopped up. Sharks are caught fresh out of the ocean, mutilated, and then their helpless handicapped bodies are thrown back into the sea. The sharks then suffocate, and drown. The fisherman claim that they don’t like doing this to the sharks, but provides a decent paycheck.
All of this murder for just a soup? Shark fins are tasteless. They are put in the soup for texture alone. According to Chinese medicine, shark fins can strengthen the waist, nourish blood cells, supply energy, and improve digestion. Recent scientists and nutritionists say that the shark fins do not have much nutritional value, and may in fact, be harmful due to high levels of mercury (Pellissier). Most consumers of this soup say it is an exciting experience to chow down on the greatest predator known to man, and that it is a luxury to dine on a very expensive and rare animal.
One may think that getting these creatures out of the sea is a wonderful thing. For some, a man eating shark is their biggest fear. The odds of getting attacked by a shark are 1 in 300 million. Sharks are very curious creatures and have no interest in eating humans. Sharks are mainly a victim of misperception and media hype from movies and TV. Many people refer to the summer of 2001 as the “Summer of the Sharks”, but only 5 people actually died from sharks worldwide that year (Pellissier).
Just about any shark is of value regardless of the age size or species. There are 400 species of sharks and nearly three fourths are used for their fins. Popular sharks for this process are blue sharks, hammerheads, silky sharks, makos, great whites, and threshers. Even the harmless whale shark is finned, and yet the most valuable. Whale shark fins go for an estimated 15,000 US dollars for a pound of the fins (Pellissier). Since the 1970s, sharkpopulation has decimated almost 95%. The common hammerhead and great white have rapidly decreased by 70% in the last 13 years. The silky white tip of the Caribbean, an important member of the oceans ecosystem is now extinct. Experts estimate that within 10 years, most species of sharks will be lost because of long lining and finning (Stewart). It is hard for sharks to repopulate because of the way they reproduce. Most sharks mature very slowly and only give birth to a small amount of pups after a long gestation period (Sharkalliance.org).
There have been many efforts to make shark finning illegal, much like whaling, and seal poaching, but the money in this industry is just too hard to pass up for many people. The education about this catastrophe is just not out there and it is a serious crisis that needs to be under more control. People need to realize that without sharks there is no future. Each country with a coastline is responsible for laws and regulations pertaining to fishing in their waters times these laws have been overlooked, because of the revenue. In most countries, it is not illegal to sell shark fin soup or any other shark products, unless it is made from a protected species, but no shark species are actively protected (sharkalliance.org).
Sharks have inhabited and maintained the worlds ocean for over 400 million years! Within a few short decades humanity has put many sharks into endangerment or extinction. Sharks play a critical role in the balance of our oceans ecosystem, consequently their disappearance is rapidly causing devastating effects to the marine environment. Without sharks humanity may struggle to survive. This major crisis needs to be put out there for the world to take action against. It is never to late to begin saving these innocent creatures.