say NO to sharkfins

say NO to shark fins

chinese new year is around the corner and everyone’s looking around for snazzy places to have reunion dinners, ya. here’s something to keep in mind while deciding on the menu this year: say NO to shark fins!
there are two enormous reasons why we should stay clear of shark fins and the soup which is a so-called ‘delicacy.’ firstly, where health is concerned, the shark’s fin has close to zero nutrition value and contains the poisonous metal chemical mercury.
that’s right, sharks concentrate mercury content in their bodies in the fin areas. sometimes even up to seven times over the FDA safety limit for consumables or up to 5.84 ppm of mercury (maximum permitted levels in Hong Kong are only 0.5 ppm). the stuff in that bowl of shark fin soup is the same liquid you find in a thermometer tube. remember how the mercury expand in the thermometer when exposed to high temperatures? now can you imagine the same thing happening in you blood veins? another fact also would be that once consumed, you body cannot dispel the mercury. its going to be in you body forever.
and seriously, does shark fins really taste like anything at all? they’re like tasteless jelly and what flavours them is the soup and all that MSG. you can actually taste the chicken and the fish sauce and all the herbs and all, but there is honestly no real taste to shark fins at all. in all actuality, it is there just for the heck of being there.
secondly, and what by right should be the greater reason to not buy and eat shark fins, is because of the cruel way they are harvested. because of its demand in the market and the price they can fetch in restaurants all over the world, over a hundred million sharks are killed every year for their fins.
when caught, their fins are cut, and the bodies of the sharks are thrown back into the water. the sharks are still alive at this point but without their fins, the sharks suffer and die a very slow and painful death by sinking at the bottom of the sea and drowning. sharks are creatures that need to keep moving in order to live. their inability to navigate because of their missing fins kill them. can you imagine that, a whole shark dies just for one lousy fin? this method of shark fin harvesting is called “finning.” it should be illegal but that is how just about all of our shark fins come from.
of course, we kill chickens and cows and eat them too, but sharks are in a whole different league altogether. for one thing, sharks do not procreate the way rabbits do. in fact for most shark species, their breeding habits are still a wonderful mystery to marine scientists. overfishing where sharks are concerned is a serious environmental threat, listing sharks as among some of the most endangered creatures in the world.

KHAIRUL NAZRI BIN HJ YAAKUB
SES 050276