Check out these pictures of CNN Special Correspondent Lisa Ling on assignment in Taiwan for Planet In Peril: Battle lines. She investigates 'shark finning' – a practice that scientists say kills around 70 million sharks every year and is altering an ecosystem.
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Even though I do not particularly love sharks they are important. That is like saying I know Pumas are important to keep the deer population in check- but you won't catch me saying Here kitty kitty kitty either! All jokes aside, sharks are important to the ecosystem. People should understand that if they care about the future of their children and grandchildren we better start treating animals with respect and stop being wasteful.
I was so happy to find that your beautiful pictures were posted. I love how they look like they are not real, not everybody can do that! The black and white has such a dramatic effect, but they feel like they were a bit censored especially in Rwanda, number 10 is my favorite! I love taking pictures and wanted you to know how much I enjoyed yours!
Thank you Anderson and Lisa for giving this the attention it deserves.
Shark finning is by far the single greatest threat facing sharks today. The practice is not only cruel, but more importantly is leading to drastic declines in shark populations worldwide.
Sharks occupy a very important place at the top of the food chain. They are like the keystone of the marine ecosystem, keeping organisms below them in check. Some have described sharks as the stewards of the ocean. As shark populations decline, the effects cascade down the food chain. The sharks' prey items (for example, small to medium sized fish) may increase in number because sharks are no longer around to keep them in check. As these fish increase in number, their prey items (for example, shellfish) decline drastically because they are being eaten.
Thus, by removing sharks from the picture, we are throwing the delicate marine ecosystem out of balance – an ecosystem that has been in healthy balance with sharks for 100's of millions of years. We are only beginning to see the adverse effects of shark declines.
It is all about educating the public because the consumer drives the market. If there is no demand for shark fin products, sharks will not be finned. It is as simple as that. The trick is getting people to make smart consumer decisions. This sort of coverage of the problem will help!
Also, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5741), which will tighten shark finning regulations in the United States. Now it has to pass the Senate and be signed by the President. Please give this bill some publicity to ensure it is passed!
Thanks!
Andy Nosal
Ph.D. Student, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD
"Planet in Peril" is' the sky is falling' – 'the sky is falling', for all the chicken barin population.
CNN and Chicken Little both know that if you repeat something over and over, some of the hens will look up and worry...
About Taiwan's eating habits?, the day that a chicken brain apartment dweller in the meto area of: NY, DC or any other snake pit domicile does not have the right tell someone how to live and what to eat.
360 Thank you for addressing this subject. It is such a horrible practice and has taken sharks to the brink of extinction. I first heard of this topic in the early 1990's and to see it grow to the proportions it has just sickens me. True, sharks are not cute and cuddly, but they are not mindless eating machines hunting for humans to attack. The chance of an attack is less than that of getting struck by lightning. Or since you might have heard that one, your chances of being attacked by a shark is less than your chance of getting attacked by a dog. At this point, because of the years of blindly finning sharks, switching the practice to having the fishermen bring back the whole shark will not make the situation better. Millions of sharks are killed each year and they reproduce slowly. The number of sharks are dwindling, fast. They are an extremely important part of the marine ecosystem. Killing off the sharks will have a catastrophic impact on the world. It will effect many other species because they are an apex predator. Okay off my soap box, I really just wanted to say thank you for making more people aware of this issue.
"As a surfer, I've always considered eating shark really...really...Bad Karma."
Beautiful photos, Jeff.
It's hard to empathize with a shark...they aren't exactly cuddly...
Can we ask why these people don't humanely kill the shark and harvest the remainder of it for food? Taiwan is not a wealthy nation; I would suspect there would be a market for the shark meat.
We had a rare shark attack that killed a surfer in nearby Solana Beach. My husband (a surfer) went out to the fishmarket to get dinner.
You guessed it. Shark.
It's a bit dry without a good marinade.
Paula, I don't want to ruin your next beef steak dinner, but the practices involved in bringing that steak to your table can, in some ways, be more "barbaric" than shark-finning. It depends on the rancher. In some cases, the cattle are allowed to open graze, live relatively good lives, and as one (good) farmer put it "they only have one bad day".
In other cases, the cattle live in crowded, manure-laden feedlocks, eating a processed feed that sometimes contains other ground up animal parts (remember the Mad Cow scare a few years back?). They're susceptible to disease, fed antibiotics to overcome these conditions, and given a harsh laxative to prepare them for market.
The kill process can be inhumane. It's not something you want to show your six year old.
In the end, we, the consumer, bear the responsibility for this cruelty by our food purchasing patterns. There would less of a shark problem if shark fin soup were not a delicacy.
If you care about cruelty to farm animals, purchasing free-range meats and chicken eggs are good ways to send a positive message to farmers and reward good animal-management practices. Our individual purchasing patterns do make a difference. Even WalMart is entering the organic food market.
Things just get worse and worse each day for the earth's animals. Murdering Gorilla's, stripping precious forests , killing sharks, Tigers becoming and some are already extinct.. I don't think this is what God intended . We are to be stewards of the animals and earth we have failed miserably. Shame on these people who practice such barbaric acts. My six year old won't even know what these creatures are by the time he is grown up.
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing them with us. I am looking forward to seeing a segment on this practice. I was just stunned that all they use of the shark was the fin and they let the shark die on the ocean floor unable to swim without his fin. That's cruel.
Annie Kate
Birmingham AL
360 & Lisa, I wonder how you guys can handle seeing this stuff in person?, wow.. such madness..