• Anti-Waste Campaign Hits Chinese Luxury Shark Fins
    10 replies, posted
[quote][B]BEIJING--[/B]China's suppliers of shark fin, abalone, pricey liquor and other luxury items have been taking a beating since new leader Xi Jinping ordered officials to cut out lavish living. The Ministry of Commerce said on Feb. 20 that business for high-end caterers in Beijing has plunged 35 percent since Xi's order two months ago. Xi, who took power in November as Communist Party general secretary, ordered the elimination of banquets and other pomp that has alienated a public that is struggling with high living costs. During last week's Lunar New Year holiday, sales of shark fin soup at Beijing hotels plunged 70 percent, the ministry said. Sales of abalone and bird's nest soup fell 40 percent. Makers of expensive liquor have seen sales weaken, and some have cut prices by up to 30 percent. [I]At a December meeting of the all-powerful Politburo, Xi ordered that arrangements for leaders' visits and the trappings of power be drastically pared back.[/I] Under the orders, elaborate welcoming ceremonies are to be eliminated, traffic disruptions avoided, and staid, often worthless reporting on the doings of the leadership dispensed with.[/quote] Source: [URL]http://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/china/AJ201302210114[/URL]
This is good. Force the Chinese to STOP EATING SHARK FINS! We need to stop this dumb tradition of eating shark fins world wide. The sooner the Chinese completely ban the sale, consumption and possession of shark fins, the better,
[QUOTE=BCell;39670475]This is good. Force the Chinese to STOP EATING SHARK FINS! We need to stop this dumb tradition of eating shark fins world wide. The sooner the Chinese completely ban the sale, consumption and possession of shark fins, the better,[/QUOTE] Probably the best idea. Shark fin soup is pretty tasty and while there isn't anything wrong with it the fins are in such high demand that people will do anything to reap on the profits.
[QUOTE=laserguided;39670607]Probably the best idea. Shark fin soup is pretty tasty and while there isn't anything wrong with it the fins are in such high demand that people will do anything to reap on the profits.[/QUOTE] From what I've heard, the fin itself doesn't really taste of anything. The only tasty part is the soup. It's just a traditional food for them to eat.
[QUOTE=Kert97;39670677]From what I've heard, the fin itself doesn't really taste of anything. The only tasty part is the soup. It's just a traditional food for them to eat.[/QUOTE] It tastes like something in between cardboard and lollypops.
Shark fin has no taste and low nutritional value, it's pretty much the stone in a stone soup. The problem here is that Asian cuisine values texture highly, which is what the fin provides.
We need better regulation and monitoring of shark fisheries. We can fish some sharks sustainably. (note: Fishing and finning are not the same thing) but their quotas will be dependent on the health of the population, not the supply and demand of the consumers. This is the same for all fisheries. Banning possession of fins without complimentary monitoring of fisheries would leave a window open for poaching. Progress is being made on the banning of shark finning (cutting the fins off at sea) with the biggest supplier of fins, the EU banning it last year. Though there is still a lot of progress to be made, things are getting better. Though I'd be fine with no commercial shark industry at all. That's not feasibly possible with such a huge demand for them. Such a situation would see an increase in illegal poaching which would be a worse-off situation than legally monitored shark-friendly fishing.
I guess the fishers won't be too happy here in Australia seeing as we supply most of Chinas abalone.
The biggest thing I hate is that they don't kill the shark. They just cut off the fins and throw it back to die until it hits the bottom of the ocean.
[QUOTE=BCell;39670475]This is good. Force the Chinese to STOP EATING SHARK FINS! We need to stop this dumb tradition of eating shark fins world wide. The sooner the Chinese completely ban the sale, consumption and possession of shark fins, the better,[/QUOTE] There's nothing wrong with eating shark fins. It's the practice of cutting off only the fins and leaving the rest of the shark to waste that is the problem.
Solution to wild endangerment: A absolutely GARGANTUAN(i am talking about the size of a small country) farm where endangered animals are bred in massive amounts
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