Shark Fin Soup

While lounging on the couch with a back injury and mindlessly flipping through television channels, I did not expect to stumble upon a Gordon Ramsay show detailing the horrors of the Asian delicacy, Shark Fin Soup. Now Ramsay is no vegetarian - not by ANY means, but after watching this show, I did have a new found respect for the man.

His investigation in Taiwan led him to roof tops with thousands of fins drying out in the sun, boats where live sharks had their fins cut off, were kicked and prodded before being tossed back in the ocean, and docks where bags of fins were unloaded from boats and the police stood by without enforcing any of the "standards" that were supposedly the law. And all this for a stupid bowl of soup.

I was sobbing. Seriously. If you happen to catch this show on BBC, I doubt you will watch with dry eyes. I had never even heard of shark fin soup, much less knew that the shark fishing industry was this offensive and detrimental. Apparently Thai fishers were spreading their fishing all the way to Costa Rica where a biologist reported that in 9 years the shark population had decreased by 60%. 60%. Are you kidding me? THIS is what the Discovery Channel should be reporting during shark week. Let's juxtapose the beautifully captured footage of sharks in their natural habitats doing their thing with a shark flopping on the deck of a fishing boat and some ignorant fisherman kicking it before chopping off its fins. Maybe then people will start to get a clue.
Here's some footage of the show from Youtube: