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  • WEDNESDAY JULY 18 2007 4:00 PM

Why the Fuck is China Still Pulling this Shark Fin Soup Bullshit?

Submitted by Rahodeb

Edited by Rahodeb

Tags: China, Endangered Species, 2008 Olympics, Shark Fin Soup, Sharks, Tigers, Dolphins



It's hard to write about China without writing a fucking treatise. There are just so many critical avenues down which one can go: female infanticide, sex-selective abortions, baby girls relegated to orphanages, or "Dying Rooms" as they've become known. There's the issue of Tibet, problems of free speech, repression of religious and spiritual groups.

Last year, the Chinese succeeded in driving the rare, white, 20 million-year-old baiji dolphin to extinction in the Yangtze River. Now they seem poised to inflict the same fate on sharks. According to the conservation group WildAid, sharks could face extinction within a generation from overfishing of their fins.

More than 90 percent of shark fin is consumed in China and demand is growing rapidly as the economy develops leading to more sharks being caught, many illegally in areas that are supposed to be protected, according to the group WildAid.

Hammerhead, Great White and Basking sharks were some of the species at risk.

"These animals have been here for 400 million years and they may disappear in one generation, not to provide people with basic food, but for a solely luxury item," executive director Peter Knights told a news conference.

The group said shark fin is becoming cheaper and eaten by a growing number of people in China -- perhaps by around 100 million people a year.

"Precisely the role China plays is one of unsustainable demand. The demand for shark fin soup as it now stands, and as it's set to increase, cannot be sustained by wild shark populations," said Steve Trent, WildAid president.

The hunting of shark fins is wasteful and barbaric. Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off while they are alive, and then they are thrown back into the water where, because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death.

Yum! Totally worth it!

Don't even get me started on tigers in China, where they farm them for body parts, and where poaching and habitat destruction has decimated about 95% of the population.

See what I mean? Kind of hard to write about one Chinese issue without launching into a full-fledged treatise. How the hell did they get the 2008 Olympics?

Zhai jian, pretty animals. See you again...in my dreams.

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Comments
ItwasDuke

ItwasDuke

New York, NY
March 2004

JUL 18, 2007 06:21 PM

Not all Sharks are assholes. frown

Adam175

Adam175

Summerstown, ON
April 2006

JUL 18, 2007 06:22 PM

Fuck China!

Jennifer_

Jennifer_

Venezuela
November 2006

JUL 18, 2007 06:39 PM

gcash056 said:

Jenni said:
I don't think sharks can drown ...


Actually, some shark species like the Great White can. They require continous movement to force water through their gills, which allows them to obtain oxygen.

Trap them in a net or put them in a cage and they die.


Ah wow. I stand corrected, like the man in the orthopedic shoes.

Matthew_X

Matthew_X

Rio Vista, CA
June 2006

JUL 18, 2007 06:45 PM

cleary you people have never had shark fin soup and let me say this its better then red panda meat

codemonkeym

codemonkeym

Germany
May 2003

JUL 18, 2007 07:13 PM

BigBadDaddy said:


How the hell did they get the 2008 Olympics?



The same reason the rest of the planet puts up with their long laundry list of bad behavior. China makes WalMart and the rest of their ilk BILLIONS. It's about human greed plain and simple.


They got the Olympics the same way everyone else does: They bribed the IOC executives.

dragonflower

dragonflower

Austin, TX
January 2007

JUL 18, 2007 07:51 PM

i'd like to find the "prez," yank out his eyeballs, and piss in the sockets.
i'm really fed up with all their bullshit.

Fungi2bw

Fungi2bw

West Roxbury, MA
January 2007

JUL 18, 2007 08:03 PM

About 10 years ago I had shark fin soup on a visit to Hong Kong. I really didn't want it, but we were with my friend's uncle who was doing his best to show us a good time... It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't anything to kill a species over. Now, unicorn steaks, those are the bomb!

We should, however, legalize all shark fins harvested by zombies... Check it.

ardour

ardour

Canada
March 2006

JUL 18, 2007 08:14 PM

We should tell the chinese sharks to rise up against China.

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

JUL 18, 2007 08:14 PM

_DictionaryGirl_ said:
Why is China such a fucking asshole? Seriously though. Poison toothpaste is the tip of that iceberg.



funny story: my father just came to visit from china and he brought me toothpaste.

i guess it runs in the family.

Azkadellia

Azkadellia

South Haven, MI
April 2007

JUL 18, 2007 08:26 PM

Jenni said:

Rahodeb said:
Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off while they are alive, and then they are thrown back into the water where, because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death.


I don't think sharks can drown ... I know they can sink, but they can't die from drowning. They can certainly die from having their fins cut off, but that's more a death from immobility than a death from drowning.

(sorry for being nitpicky...)



If I remember correctly, sharks must continually move in order to pass water over their gills, to breathe. They need fins to move. No move, no breathe. It's not really drowneding, but it IS suffocation, which is just as painful and horrific.

And I'm sorry, I see no justification in killing off a species for any reason.I understand China has an immense population of poor, but the government needs to step up and fix that. If the dolphins still existed, they would have been moved into captivity in hopes of breeding them to repopulate. Hopefully someone will do the same for the sharks, before it's too late.

Oh, and to all you shark haters, SAND kills more people every year than sharks. Suck on that!

john8boy

john8boy

Honolulu, HI
March 2004

JUL 18, 2007 08:31 PM

CHINA'S POPULATION IS ON A MANIC TEAR RIGHT NOW, AS THEY TEND TO OVER DO IT, ARGUABLY THE SAME REASON COMMUNISM TOOK OVER. WITH THE FORMER MONARCHY LETTING THINGS GET OUT OF CONTROL. EXACTLY WHATS HAPPENING WITH THIS REFORMED REGIME. AND ITS ALSO THE EXACT REASON FOR THE FIRST REVOLUTION WAS THE ECONOMIC DISTANT BETWEEN THE HAVE AND HAVE NOTS.

unfiltrator

unfiltrator

San Francisco, CA
April 2004

JUL 18, 2007 08:43 PM

Jenni said:

Rahodeb said:
Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off while they are alive, and then they are thrown back into the water where, because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death.


I don't think sharks can drown ... I know they can sink, but they can't die from drowning. They can certainly die from having their fins cut off, but that's more a death from immobility than a death from drowning.

(sorry for being nitpicky...)


Allow me to be the first person to point out this interesting fact, sharks would in fact drown without their fins. They use their fins to scoop up tiny bubbles and put them in their mouth. They also use their fins in order to put their clothes on.

Azkadellia

Azkadellia

South Haven, MI
April 2007

JUL 18, 2007 08:49 PM

publicAnemone said:

Jenni said:

Rahodeb said:
Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off while they are alive, and then they are thrown back into the water where, because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death.


I don't think sharks can drown ... I know they can sink, but they can't die from drowning. They can certainly die from having their fins cut off, but that's more a death from immobility than a death from drowning.

(sorry for being nitpicky...)


Allow me to be the first person to point out this interesting fact, sharks would in fact drown without their fins. They use their fins to scoop up tiny bubbles and put them in their mouth. They also use their fins in order to put their clothes on.



You're the third. Sorry.

Azkadellia

Azkadellia

South Haven, MI
April 2007

JUL 18, 2007 08:50 PM

john8boy said:
CHINA'S POPULATION IS ON A MANIC TEAR RIGHT NOW, AS THEY TEND TO OVER DO IT, ARGUABLY THE SAME REASON COMMUNISM TOOK OVER. WITH THE FORMER MONARCHY LETTING THINGS GET OUT OF CONTROL. EXACTLY WHATS HAPPENING WITH THIS REFORMED REGIME. AND ITS ALSO THE EXACT REASON FOR THE FIRST REVOLUTION WAS THE ECONOMIC DISTANT BETWEEN THE HAVE AND HAVE NOTS.



Quit yelling, we get it.

ogichida30

ogichida30

Concord, CA
September 2004

JUL 18, 2007 08:55 PM

The sad thing being is China is one of the oldest civiizlations in the world, and it seems like they are regressing instead of progressing. Not like us in the states, we would NEVER elect people who would make us step backwards into the 50's or so. biggrin

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