My Opinions On Shark Finning

[Tagmatium]

No, I guess not. Genralisations just piss me off though. There are other countries that whale and shark fin, appart from Japan and China, respectively.

Sorry, I wasn't specific enough in my counter. Nor did it make much sense.

I think the Norwegians indulge in whaling as well, which is similarly wrong.

Hell, the vast majority of farming is pretty shitty to the animals. The issue, I think, primarily lies with the consumer. It's easy to blame the farmers for these practices, but if people weren't willing to buy the stuff, then there would be no reason for the practices to continue.

I'm guilty as the next person for doing this, however. My money is somewhat short at the moment (student = poor), so I will tend to gravitate towards the cheaper stuff, rather than the more expensive free-range foods. And if I go to a restaurant or similar, I don't ever check to see if they source their foods from sustainable sources.

It's something I keep meaning to do...

[Ifreann]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

[EvilDarkMagicians]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

[East Congaree]

Chinese with their finning, Japanese with their whaling.. Both fuckin' stupid in my opinion.

While the Japanese are much worse in this regard, I must agree.

Does this seem racist to anyone else?!

Not really, as s/he's attacking things that those countries are doing, rather than having a go at the populations themselves. If s/he said that "Those fucking nips are barbaric for eating whales, same as them Chinks!", then that would be racist.

So it's not racist if they don't use racist words? But they are still genrallising, which is racist. I bet there are a fair few Japanese and Chinese people against shark finning and whaling.

Uhm? I could name practices i'm upset with in the food industry of any country. For example, the way "factory farms" are managed in America. Does that make me "rascist against Americans"? (Lol, that doesn't even make sense, as Americans aren't a clearly defined race, or even an ethnic group....)

No, I guess not. Genralisations just piss me off though. There are other countries that whale and shark fin, appart from Japan and China, respectively.

I Never said others didn't.

[East Congaree]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

No, the whole shark is useful. They don't care, though, because they would make more profit by just cutting off fins and keeping them, rather than cleaning the whole shark, which sells much less per pound. Even if you don't care about being humane towards animals or something, it's wrong from a moral standpoint. Wasting all that meat,egh..... In addition, this sort of fast kill and run encourages overharvesting.

[Dolbri]

"NOT mistreating sharks? Why, that's almost just as silly as not mistreating people!"

I'm sure those eastasian people are nice and all, but they show a deep lack of respect for all that lives.

[Xsyne]

Why can't they just farm sharks instead?

This is amazingly short sighted. If sharks are hunted to extinction, then nobody'll get to have shark fin soup.

Plus, you know, sharks fill an essential ecological niche and it'll throw their ecosystems drastically off balance if they're gone and all that.

I imagine shark farming doesn't happen for the same reason whale farming doesn't happen. Too large to grow in substantial numbers under a controlled environment.

Shark farming doesn't happen because they take an ungodly long time to reach maturity. It's the same reason they're so vulnerable to overfishing.

[Kalakda]

Here's my opinion on shark finning that could work on almost every environmental issue (i.e. overfishing, overhunting, overlogging, etc.): don't overdo it, don't underdo it. What it means is don't overdo it by hunting and fishing creatures to extinction, logging the crap out of forests, and overexploiting the land until it becomes a craphole. And don't underdo it by not hunting, fishing, and drilling for oil at all! The best type of environmentalism is conservationism, common sense environmentalism, why? Because radical environmentalists don't want you to do anything that might hurt the environment like driving a car, cutting down a tree, not recycling. If the fishermen just moderately fish, stop at the end of the season, wait a few years for the fish numbers to recover and then moderately fish again, and repeat the process. Most modern day sport hunters are conservationists, and the reason for that is because if they don't stop overhunting, there won't be anymore animals to hunt and for future generations to enjoy.

Sport hunting actually helps the environment by trimming down the numbers of animals in an ecosystem, so if the population of a particular species of animals gets out of control, the best option is to allow hunters to trim down the animals' population a bit until the population reaches normal levels. You have to balance the two together: feeding demand fro resources and preserving the environment, if you lean too far to one side, you could either turn the environment into a craphole, or cause the economy and peoples' ways of life to suffer, it's not a "You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't" sort of situation, you have a third option: balance the two and you not only preserve the environment for future generations to enjoy, but also allow the Human Race to prosper even more by harvesting enough oil, coal, meat, lumber, minerals, and other products to meat demand. That's the best solution to every environmental problem.

[Israslovakahzerbajan]

Finning isn't very regulated and sharks have very negative stereotypes despite being majestic creatures.

[Buffett and Colbert]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Shark liver for medicine, teeth for nice little trinkets... there are many uses for a shark.

[Czardas]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

Yeah.

The only reason I don't support it is because it's a waste of resources. If you're going to catch a shark and cut off the fins, you may as well use the rest of the shark for something too -- otherwise what's the point? It's like shooting a deer for the antlers.

[Greed and Death]

Well, because the Chinese use shark fins to make some sort of soup that's commonly served at weddings and banquets and is very popular. The soup has been around since the Ming Dynasty, so it's an ancient tradition.

And, if you've ever had shark fin soup you'd know just what a nasty, vile dish it is - blecch.

Some traditions should die, this is one of them.

I actually like shark fin soup.
It also improves special endurance.

[Greed and Death]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Shark liver for medicine, teeth for nice little trinkets... there are many uses for a shark.

but you make more profits just finning them.

[Kalakda]

Finning isn't very regulated and sharks have very negative stereotypes despite being majestic creatures.

Maybe you should go after Steven Spielberg!

[Flameswroth]

Well, because the Chinese use shark fins to make some sort of soup that's commonly served at weddings and banquets and is very popular. The soup has been around since the Ming Dynasty, so it's an ancient tradition.

So was dying of smallpox, but they saw fit to give that up along with the rest of the world.

Come now, you know a disease is not reasonably analogous to a fishing practice.

For some fucking soup that tastes like shit anyway.

Opinion.

I think not killing them entirely is kind of silly, as a shark sans fins is sort of...dead anyways. And I'm sure they'll find some sort of dish to serve other parts of the shark in if they try.

[Israslovakahzerbajan]

Finning isn't very regulated and sharks have very negative stereotypes despite being majestic creatures.

Maybe you should go after Steven Spielberg!

He is saved, Close Encounters made up for it! Besides I love Jaws, it's just fiction after all.

[Kalakda]

Still, Jaws is one of the main reasons why people now both fear and hate sharks.

[Kalakda]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Shark liver for medicine, teeth for nice little trinkets... there are many uses for a shark.

Well, the Native Americans used every part of a bison or a whale for something... just wanna point that out.

[Maurepas]

Well, because the Chinese use shark fins to make some sort of soup that's commonly served at weddings and banquets and is very popular. The soup has been around since the Ming Dynasty, so it's an ancient tradition.

So was dying of smallpox, but they saw fit to give that up along with the rest of the world. I fail to see why some ancient tradition that used to make only the tiniest impact on the shark population because so relatively few people were doing it, should now be carried on to such an extreme it is driving species towards extinction. For some fucking soup that tastes like shit anyway.

^^^This, they should learn to farm them if they want it...We figured that out with our seafood, they can too...

[Erich Dahmer]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Them? Them?! What exactly are you implying, that all chinese are stupid and barbaric? I come from a long line of Chinese fisherman and I won't stand for your stereotypes about my people. Apologize!

[Mad hatters in jeans]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Them? Them?! What exactly are you implying, that all chinese are stupid and barbaric? I come from a long line of Chinese fisherman and I won't stand for your stereotypes about my people. Apologize!

it's their fault the millenium dome was stolen by Italy in the great flood.

[Dluighinleigh]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Them? Them?! What exactly are you implying, that all chinese are stupid and barbaric? I come from a long line of Chinese fisherman and I won't stand for your stereotypes about my people. Apologize!

Chill.
I'm pretty sure that by "them" he meant those fishermen who toss a de-finned shark back into the water, not Chinese fishemen in general.

[Barringtonia]

They're generally not Chinese fishermen anyway, they're Puerto Rican or etc., the Chinese work as the traders not the actual fishermen a lot of the time.

There are 3 areas in the world where sharks gather en masse, one is the Galapagos islands, one is around Easter Island and I can't remember the other off the top of my head.

[Teletropis]

Chinese with their finning, Japanese with their whaling.. Both fuckin' stupid in my opinion.

While the Japanese are much worse in this regard, I must agree.

Does this seem racist to anyone else?!

Lol, no. I was attacking their actions, not their race (clearly).

[East Congaree]

The fuck. If you're going to go to the trouble of catching the shark, why not keep the whole damned thing. Is the whole rest of the shark totally useless or something?

To them, yes.

Shark liver for medicine, teeth for nice little trinkets... there are many uses for a shark.

Well, the Native Americans used every part of a bison or a whale for something... just wanna point that out.

Unless you're being sarcastic, no. Native Americans would take out the tongues of bisons and then just abandon the carcass. Don't pull the rascism card on me now, i'm half Native American.