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On October 28 2011 09:53 Trell wrote: I love Shark Fin soup >.< So I don't think a ban is necessary, as others have pointed out, maybe more strict laws on overhunting and using all parts of the shark.Shark Farms would be nice too.
I'm all for shark farming as long as they can solve the mercury issue
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On October 28 2011 05:42 Reborn8u wrote:I wonder 50+ years from now, when our grandchildren live in a world where many of the life forms we know today are gone, a world where it is very difficult or impossible to find food that is untainted by chemicals, and the life span of people is declining, and we tell our decedents of how different things were when we were young, then they look at us and ask "why did you let this happen?" what will our answers to them will be? We have but one world, we cannot afford to take it for granted. + Show Spoiler +
That last video you posted effectively invalidated your entire post for me, not that it was particularly thought-provoking to begin with. That video contains some really shoddy logic, that train of thought can actually be used for absolutely fucking anything and the result will be positive, that "test" always turns out positive for hypothetical catastrophes. You could use a zombie outbreak and it would come out positive, you could use alien invasion and it would turn out positive, you could use 2012 and really, any religious end of the world theories and it would turn out positive.
Furthermore, there is no reason for me to currently believe that food that is "tainted by chemicals" will actually have a negative impact on my life or the life of my grandchildren, quite simply genetic modification and enhancement is what has allowed us to keep up with the world's massively growing population and has been pretty positive so far. If said chemicals are proven harmful down the line, they will be regulated or you can otherwise phase them out of your life if you so choose. I highly doubt my grandchild will be asking me in 50 years why he can't have unaltered brocoli, because the shit he's eating will likely be just fine.
Now, don't get me wrong, I support this ban because I believe it is important to protect the environment, marine ecosystems and the dwindling shark population, but hyperbolic hypothetical nonsense is a stupid way to try and make a point.
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On October 29 2011 00:36 a176 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2011 09:53 Trell wrote: I love Shark Fin soup >.< So I don't think a ban is necessary, as others have pointed out, maybe more strict laws on overhunting and using all parts of the shark.Shark Farms would be nice too. I'm all for shark farming as long as they can solve the mercury issue If they are able to remove mercury I think I'd have some shark steak, I heard in the hands of a skilled chef it has quite the texture
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Watch documentary About sharks it was named ...... Filmed by cAnadian don't remember the nAme but you will be shocked at how those fins extracted and what kind of industry it is
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
ban it of course. it's a stupid tradition
and no this is not 'china bashing.' it is just a very primitive tradition with some unnervingly terrible, sick motivation behind it. i don't see the point of defending say human sacrifice, same goes for this crap.
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im chinese and i think this should be banned. if youre trying to bring chinese tradition into this, theres no reason why chinese should support not using the entire animal. We practically invented using everything that an animal has in a meal.
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Ban anything which endangers a species. Chinese culture has nothing to do with it. Why do people have to make this about themselves?
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Man , we shouldn't ban Shark's fin.. instead, just tell them it's shark fins but it's made up of noodle stuff xD
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I've had shark fin soup twice but it wasn't like anything in that gordon ramsay video. It was more like little shreds of shark fin rather than an entire fin. Probably a little more economic version 
It was good but nothing super special. Since I've already tasted it I don't really care if they ban it.
As long as there's peking duck :D
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I wonder why people are so eager to ban it outright?
- This seems rather heavy-handed to me. Why ban it outright instead of regulating it? Only allow fins to be sold if the whole shark is brought in. Only allow certain species to be captured - which is easy when combined with the previous rule. Make the fishers pay for this and taxpayers are no worse off. People are willing to pay a lot for luxury foods.
- To those talking about how it's "just texture", texture is an important part of the "taste". Our mouths don't just have taste buds, but also have touch, and both play a role in how we appreciate food. For example, texture is the reason why chocolate tastes so good. Otherwise, it's mostly sugar (cocoa is bitter). We have the technology to give chocolate a wide variety of textures without altering the taste, yet only certain textures are universally popular. One thing that sets high end chocolate apart from cheaper products is the work that goes into the texture. Some vegetarians carry the "it's just texture" view to the extreme and apply it to meat products in general, which is equally short-sighted.
- This matter doesn't seem to have much to do with endangered species - even the OP says so. So it's curious how so many people jump onto these ideas. The fishers still have to obey international laws and only hunt non-endangered species.
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Bit strange that people are so fine with killing the entire shark rather than cutting the fin...
Either way i don't really have a problem with it. If it's harming the ecosystem i don't think it's a bad idea. I personally kinda like shark fin soup, though I haven't had since the last wedding I was at probably 4-5 years ago.
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On October 30 2011 08:55 phiinix wrote: Bit strange that people are so fine with killing the entire shark rather than cutting the fin...
Either way i don't really have a problem with it. If it's harming the ecosystem i don't think it's a bad idea. I personally kinda like shark fin soup, though I haven't had since the last wedding I was at probably 4-5 years ago. People have a problem with it because bringing the shark in requires killing it regardless of whether you take off the fin. Throwing the carcass back into the sea imbalances the ecosystem. Would you want huge rotting corpses of dead shit all over your forest.
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i never drank the soup after hearing how they obtained them. but over here, they do sell shark meat, which in contrast is much cheaper than the fin itself. but damn i gotta admit that the soup is actually really good.
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On October 30 2011 09:02 Gummy wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2011 08:55 phiinix wrote: Bit strange that people are so fine with killing the entire shark rather than cutting the fin...
Either way i don't really have a problem with it. If it's harming the ecosystem i don't think it's a bad idea. I personally kinda like shark fin soup, though I haven't had since the last wedding I was at probably 4-5 years ago. People have a problem with it because bringing the shark in requires killing it regardless of whether you take off the fin. Throwing the carcass back into the sea imbalances the ecosystem. Would you want huge rotting corpses of dead shit all over your forest.
Erm no, that's not how it works and that's not why. There is no major issue with having that shark carcass back in the ocean. The issue is that it's both wasteful and cruel to just toss a living shark back in after finning it. Regardless, that's not my issue with this, quite simply, I don't want sharks to be hunted into extinction.
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On October 30 2011 08:17 Warble wrote:I wonder why people are so eager to ban it outright? - This seems rather heavy-handed to me. Why ban it outright instead of regulating it? Only allow fins to be sold if the whole shark is brought in. Only allow certain species to be captured - which is easy when combined with the previous rule. Make the fishers pay for this and taxpayers are no worse off. People are willing to pay a lot for luxury foods.
- To those talking about how it's "just texture", texture is an important part of the "taste". Our mouths don't just have taste buds, but also have touch, and both play a role in how we appreciate food. For example, texture is the reason why chocolate tastes so good. Otherwise, it's mostly sugar (cocoa is bitter). We have the technology to give chocolate a wide variety of textures without altering the taste, yet only certain textures are universally popular. One thing that sets high end chocolate apart from cheaper products is the work that goes into the texture. Some vegetarians carry the "it's just texture" view to the extreme and apply it to meat products in general, which is equally short-sighted.
- This matter doesn't seem to have much to do with endangered species - even the OP says so. So it's curious how so many people jump onto these ideas. The fishers still have to obey international laws and only hunt non-endangered species.
I think the demand for the fin severely outweighs that for the shark as a whole - this leads to a situation where either there a lot of sharks come in, have their fin taken and then are essentially thrown out because there are no buyers; or, the price of shark fins goes through the roof, which would just encourage "poaching", which I imagine is hard to regulate in the oceans.
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Just ban it FFS. Most of the taste lies in other things that is put in the broth and the cultural significance of this soup isn't really that great (Tbh there is a lot of traditional southern Chinese foods that should be banned because it is unsustainable or viewed as 'cruel' in the modern world) and yes I'm Chinese.
But it is rather funny this is coming from Canada that opposed the export ban on the bluefin tuna. I guess if it doesn't affect your economy or culture then go nuts.
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On October 30 2011 09:44 drag_ wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2011 08:17 Warble wrote:I wonder why people are so eager to ban it outright? - This seems rather heavy-handed to me. Why ban it outright instead of regulating it? Only allow fins to be sold if the whole shark is brought in. Only allow certain species to be captured - which is easy when combined with the previous rule. Make the fishers pay for this and taxpayers are no worse off. People are willing to pay a lot for luxury foods.
- To those talking about how it's "just texture", texture is an important part of the "taste". Our mouths don't just have taste buds, but also have touch, and both play a role in how we appreciate food. For example, texture is the reason why chocolate tastes so good. Otherwise, it's mostly sugar (cocoa is bitter). We have the technology to give chocolate a wide variety of textures without altering the taste, yet only certain textures are universally popular. One thing that sets high end chocolate apart from cheaper products is the work that goes into the texture. Some vegetarians carry the "it's just texture" view to the extreme and apply it to meat products in general, which is equally short-sighted.
- This matter doesn't seem to have much to do with endangered species - even the OP says so. So it's curious how so many people jump onto these ideas. The fishers still have to obey international laws and only hunt non-endangered species.
I think the demand for the fin severely outweighs that for the shark as a whole - this leads to a situation where either there a lot of sharks come in, have their fin taken and then are essentially thrown out because there are no buyers; or, the price of shark fins goes through the roof, which would just encourage "poaching", which I imagine is hard to regulate in the oceans.
I imagine the fin being the most valuable part is why they have been throwing the rest of the shark back instead of bringing in the whole shark. But if they can't sell the fin without bringing in the rest of the shark, they'll find some use for the rest of the shark so it isn't wasted. Does the rest of the shark need to be as valuable as the fin before people are allowed to eat the fins? I thought the issue was that the rest of the shark was being wasted, and that it was cruel to throw them back into the sea. If those problems are solved, why does the opposition remain?
So I think this discontinuity in the opposition to shark fin harvesting is related to the heavy-handed approach taken in these Canadian provinces. It seems to me that the real issues in those provinces are not the cruelty and the waste - those are easily solved with more reasonable laws - but because people have an aversion to the idea of eating sharks, and are just using the waste and cruelty as cover excuses.
We can see more evidence of that here in this thread: people talking about endangeredness and extinction when those aren't actually talking points at all, and despite the OP pointing this out. When we think of sharks, we think of great whites and all these other endangered species. We have been so exposed to the idea that some species of sharks are endangered that it's easy to forget that there are many species of sharks that aren't endangered, and that there are already international laws regulating the hunting of endangered species.
Despite people claiming otherwise, I think it is also related to the fact that shark fin soup is a Chinese custom - it is similar to caviar in Western culture, but instead of thinking about caviar, I imagine a lot of people relate it to the weirder "customs" of herbal medicine and consumption of tiger penises.
As for the "poaching" issue, well, I think people are generally good at heart and will try to do the right thing if it's available. So if cruelty-free and non-wasteful shark fin was available, I think most people would go for that even if it's expensive. Do you think a blanket ban would encourage or discourage poachers?
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