Thai Chinese urged to shun shark fin

[webfact]

Thai Chinese urged to shun shark fin
By The Nation

 

BANGKOK: -- Chinese descendants in Thailand are urged to say no to shark fin when they celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year.

 

In its “Say No to Shark Fin” campaign in Thailand launched Monday, WildAid pointed out that Chinese New Year celebration is a peak time for shark fin consumption in the kingdom that plays a significant role in the global shark fin market.

 

It said in its press statement that an estimated 100 million sharks are killed every year. Data gathered from 1996 to 2000 reveal that the fins of between 26 and 73 millions sharks are traded each year often ending up in shark fin soup, with a median of 38 million.  

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30304712

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-01-23

[elgordo38]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

It said in its press statement that an estimated 100 million sharks are killed every year.

Its truly amazing that any are left. Does not say much for the human race and its understanding and does not say much for our stewardship of this species and well many others. Animals kill to survive we kill them for delicacy appetites. 

[Srikcir]

Simply ban shark fin in Thailand.

Lose a million Chinese visitors.

Lose tourist revenues.

Damage junta performance.

Win-Win

[bangon04]

and the Sino-Thais are going to pay the slightest attention to this "urging" because????

[sanukjim]

might as well ask them to not burn fake paper money on The Chinese New Year,return home on New Years,eat moon cakes on their holidays. What a stupid expression is "urged not to".

[gamini]

What a ludicrous suggestion. And what happens to the tens of thousands of tonnes of sharks fins,  a byproduct  shark meat, which is the staple diet of tens of millions  of very poor people living in coastal districts of South Asia. Namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka plus a lot of other people in Africa. The shark fins provides a little bit of extra income for the  shark fisherman. And what about Australia and New Zealand. Shark meat is often used in their famous fish and chips. You expect them to throw away the shark's fin just to please some misinformed people. "Finning" sharks and throwing back the carcass is deplorable and criminal. But no fishermen or people in poor developing company do this, since the shark meat is a valuable product. However in developed countries in the northern hemisphere they don't eat shark,  and it is them who are doing the "finning". The so-called facts given by Wildaid are incorrect. Most of the shark's fin traded in Thailand is from Pakistan as a byproduct of the shark industry. The actual number of sharks killed for finning as opposed to eating is quite small, probably about 5% of the total industry. Wildaid seems to to imply that sharks are killed for their fins as opposed to eating which is completely incorrect . Instead of trying to persuade people to stop eating sharks fin, they should work for have a heavy penalties for those who are involved in  the cruel finning of sharks.
Much is made of sharks being an endangered species. There are over 350 species of sharks and only about half a dozen are endangered. With only one fifth of the sea explored no one has any idea of the shark population. In my own opinion, sharks are much more prolific than believed. They've been around for millions of years and they'll be around in their billions long after the human race ceases to exist on this planet.
I guess I can expect the usual TV bashing. But before anybody does so, please consider my  credentials. I have been a fisheries officer in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. I have explored vast areas of the sea with well  known underwater explorers. I was awarded an honorary Marine biologists degree. I have lectured on sharks in many countries including Thailand and and written many articles about them. I think I can claim to be quite an expert. My book,  "Ecstasy of the Deep" has been published about my underrwater life.

[seajae]

51 minutes ago, gamini said:

What a ludicrous suggestion. And what happens to the tens of thousands of tonnes of sharks fins,  a byproduct  shark meat, which is the staple diet of tens of millions  of very poor people living in coastal districts of South Asia. Namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka plus a lot of other people in Africa. The shark fins provides a little bit of extra income for the  shark fisherman. And what about Australia and New Zealand. Shark meat is often used in their famous fish and chips. You expect them to throw away the shark's fin just to please some misinformed people. "Finning" sharks and throwing back the carcass is deplorable and criminal. But no fishermen or people in poor developing company do this, since the shark meat is a valuable product. However in developed countries in the northern hemisphere they don't eat shark,  and it is them who are doing the "finning". The so-called facts given by Wildaid are incorrect. Most of the shark's fin traded in Thailand is from Pakistan as a byproduct of the shark industry. The actual number of sharks killed for finning as opposed to eating is quite small, probably about 5% of the total industry. Wildaid seems to to imply that sharks are killed for their fins as opposed to eating which is completely incorrect . Instead of trying to persuade people to stop eating sharks fin, they should work for have a heavy penalties for those who are involved in  the cruel finning of sharks.
Much is made of sharks being an endangered species. There are over 350 species of sharks and only about half a dozen are endangered. With only one fifth of the sea explored no one has any idea of the shark population. In my own opinion, sharks are much more prolific than believed. They've been around for millions of years and they'll be around in their billions long after the human race ceases to exist on this planet.
I guess I can expect the usual TV bashing. But before anybody does so, please consider my  credentials. I have been a fisheries officer in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. I have explored vast areas of the sea with well  known underwater explorers. I was awarded an honorary Marine biologists degree. I have lectured on sharks in many countries including Thailand and and written many articles about them. I think I can claim to be quite an expert. My book,  "Ecstasy of the Deep" has been published about my underrwater life.

the way they do shark finning in the asia continents is to remove the fins from a live shark then toss it back in the water to let it die. In Australia there are limits on amounts that can be caught and on the size as well, neither of these are applied in asia. The meat is called flake and it is only taken from a few types of sharks(gummy, school & snapper sharks), not all of them. Several sharks are protected species as well and finning is also illegal in Australia. Suggest you get your facts next time, the money involved means asians simply fin as many as they can, also shark meat contains a lot of ammonia so it is not an easy option for many people, this makes it not so popular as a food staple, much of what you have said is simply  misleading and based on what happened many years ago, how many years since you have been diving, in your late 80's so its been a while, things have changed a lot, you need to get better facts and not base it on what you did many years ago

[wakeupplease]

the way they do shark finning in the asia continents is to remove the fins from a live shark then toss it back in the water to let it die

 

Sounds a bit like the Junta if you don't happen to agree with them

[gamini]

17 hours ago, seajae said:

the way they do shark finning in the asia continents is to remove the fins from a live shark then toss it back in the water to let it die. In Australia there are limits on amounts that can be caught and on the size as well, neither of these are applied in asia. The meat is called flake and it is only taken from a few types of sharks(gummy, school & snapper sharks), not all of them. Several sharks are protected species as well and finning is also illegal in Australia. Suggest you get your facts next time, the money involved means asians simply fin as many as they can, also shark meat contains a lot of ammonia so it is not an easy option for many people, this makes it not so popular as a food staple, much of what you have said is simply  misleading and based on what happened many years ago, how many years since you have been diving, in your late 80's so its been a while, things have changed a lot, you need to get better facts and not base it on what you did many years ago

 

if you read my post properly you would see I refer to South Asia where shark meat is still a staple diet of many coastal people. I would agree that in North Asia, richer countries like Korea,  China, Taiwan and Japan, they fin the sharks and throw the carcasses away. I implied this in my post. You, on the other hand, stated that this happens in Asia. This is not correct. Certainly not in the South Asian countries I mentioned. Because shark meat still has a value there as an edible product. The shark fins have only a small value until  they are processed.  You still do not explain  as to what to do with the shark fins as a byproduct if people are persuaded to boycott it in both  South Asia and in Australia. The point of my post was to question this. In spite of my age I keep up research on this subject which is always been of interest to me. If you did the same you would see there is a huge shark meat industry with sharkfin as a byproduct.