There has always been talks about how fishermen leverage on the huge market for the consumption of sharks' fins and throw the dying shark back to the water after snipping off their fins, aka "live-finning".In JC, I've even watched a documentary endorsed by our very own Stephanie Sun (Sun Yan Zi) about the harm that this is causing on those sharks and other marine life.
All these news left me a bit apprehensive and I even swore to lay off shark's fin.
However, a few years ago, I remember hearing from my mum, after she had read an article on the Straits Times that we can eat shark's fin without guilt. An excerpt below:
However, these sensational pictures obscure the fact that many within the industry are against such practices. The vast majority of fins in the market are taken from sharks after their death. This is the preliminary finding of a review made with the assistance of shark experts, fishermen, captains of big fishing ships and representatives of fishery departments, the fishing industry, fish markets and fishing ports.
Read the article and you'll see the two sides of the coin.
I thought it sounded logical, in a way. I mean, at least we use the whole shark, and not only snip off the fin and let it die a slow death right? At least we "fully utilise" the shark and not let it go to waste. Even in Crystal Jade, you'll see in the menu "shark's bone soup"... it's not shark's fin, but it's from sharks. Do we avoid that too? At least it shows that sharks are not ONLY being fished for their fins.
Anyway, I like the taste of shark's fin/bone soup (I know shark's fin itself has no taste but I like the soup as a whole), and I will eat it when it is ordered. But I wouldn't mind not eating it as well.
In my opinion, I feel that it is tough for consumers to stop eating shark's fin when it represents prestige and "face" in terms of chinese. For example, if shark's fin is not offered during weddings, it may appear that the family is cheapskate. It sounds a little corny, but it's the way the society works. It's not stupid... it's just societal norms.
However, as one reply to the article puts it, we could alternatively use bird's nest since it portrays the same prestige and value and has actual nutritional value.
More recently, something else made me have second thoughts about eating shark's fin, and that had something to do with my health.For example, I started to really have some thought on not eating shark's fin at all when my dad told me that it contains mercury and is bad for health. Now that... is effective. So I went to research about it and found this:
An environmental pressure group says shark fins, which are considered a delicacy in many parts of Asia, can contain dangerously high levels of the poison mercury.A United States-based group WildAid says independent tests on shark fins bought in Bangkok showed that some had mercury levels up to 42 times higher than the safe limit for humans.
However, when I analyzed the source, it doesn't really look convincing. Activist groups saying that it contains high level of mercury? Isn't that like totally a biased research?
Maybe when an independent research has been conducted will it entirely convince me. So for now, I'll probably not order it myself, but I'll still eat it - I mean, if people have already ordered it and presented it in front of you during weddings it makes no sense to not eat it and waste the bowl of soup right? ;)
What about you?
Comments
Enjoy your soup.