Yao Ming to China: Stop eating shark fins - Polidicks

[img]http://i.imgur.com/PCxz4.jpg[/img] [release](AP) SHANGHAI - Recently retired Chinese NBA star Yao Ming is taking the fight against eating shark fins back to his homeland, where demand for the traditional delicacy is soaring despite efforts to ban their use and trade. [b]Yao and British tycoon Richard Branson made an appeal Thursday in Shanghai against eating shark fins, which are a staple of high-class Chinese banquets, to a group of 30 of China's richest and most influential businesspeople.[/b] [b]"When demand happens, the buying happens and the killing happens,"[/b] said Yao, a 7-foot-6 (2.29-meter) former center who retired in July after eight seasons with the Houston Rockets due to injuries. Shanghai-born Yao is using his post-retirement free time to help campaign [b]against the slaughter of 1.5 million sharks a week that is taking some of the species close to extinction.[/b] [b]The event, sponsored by the conservation group WildAid, is aimed at starting a conservation movement in China "not just to protect the sharks but to protect tigers, and to protect other species that are in peril of extinction," Branson said.[/b] [b]Critics say fishermen kill more than 70 million sharks each year for their fins, which can sell for $700 a pound (450 grams), while the soup can cost $80 a bowl. Usually, the fins are cut from the sharks and their bodies discarded, [i]leaving them to die.[/i][/b] [b]Although there have been moves to ban the trade and consumption of shark fins in California and elsewhere, 95 percent are consumed in China.[/b] [b]"There's been a massive increase in shark fin soup and the killing of sharks,"[/b] said Branson, whose Virgin Airlines bans transport of shark fins. "The world is getting wealthier, particularly in China people are getting wealthier, and they can now afford to buy shark fin soup." "We're trying to get other businesses to ban the transportation of shark fins," he said. While shark fins have been used to make soup for hundreds of years, until recently consumption was limited to a small elite, said Yao, who gave up eating shark fin in 2006 and says he avoids events where it is served. About 20 countries and regions have imposed regulations on finning or commercial shark fishing. Earlier this month, California imposed a ban on the trade. China regulates dealings in and harvesting of sharks but has not banned it. [b]"As far as shark finning is concerned the best way is to ... ban altogether shark fin soup from states and then countries. That's perhaps the only way to save the shark in the long term," Branson said.[/b][/release] It's good to see celebrities trying to help with this. Shark finning will never truly end until we get support in China. The only way that's going to happen is with education and public conservation measures to tell the people why shark finning needs to be stopped. It's looking to me like more and more people are calling for an end to it, but we need to get the majority of China on board. [url]http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/22/501364/main20110217.shtml[/url] You may have heard about the white house site WeThePeople that allows you to make petitions. I ask you please to take a moment to sign one that has already gone public: [url]https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/ban-sale-trade-and-possession-shark-and-shark-products-including-shark-fin/dBmF5cHP[/url] And one I made yesterday that has yet to gain enough signs to go public: [url]https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/ban-possession-sale-and-distribution-shark-fins/N8MQYlsn?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl[/url]

Oh God,that face

Shark fin soup is good though.

[QUOTE=doonbugie2;32449881]Shark fin soup is good though.[/QUOTE] The fin adds no flavor at all. Just eat it without the fin.

Cool! I remember Jackie Chan doing something too about a similar issue.

Oh wow, haven't heard Yao Ming in the news in a while.

I feel this will go unnoticed along with other calls to stop making rare species go extinct just so they can have to useless "medicine".

You can eat shark fins? I gotta find out how that tastes.

[QUOTE=Rick Ross;32450005]You can eat shark fins? I gotta find out how that tastes.[/QUOTE] Probably like a giant finger nail boiled in broth.

[QUOTE=Rick Ross;32450005]You can eat shark fins? I gotta find out how that tastes.[/QUOTE] The primary appeal of shark fin is the texture.

[QUOTE=Billiam;32450046]The primary appeal of shark fin is the texture.[/QUOTE] Just eat sandpaper then, probably tastes the same anyway.

I was about to try this while in Hong Kong but I couldn't find the restaurant that serves it! I'll eat sharks, I'm not scared.

shark is so tasty though

Shark fin soup is tasty, you white people don't know what you're missing. [editline]24th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=OvB;32449918]The fin adds no flavor at all. Just eat it without the fin.[/QUOTE] That's like saying "bread adds no flavor, just eat the sandwich without the bread".

It's funny because they say it boosts sexual potency, while in reality it could potentially cause sterility if eaten in large quantities because of the high mercury content.

[QUOTE=ken188;32450229]Shark fin soup is tasty, you white people don't know what you're missing. [editline]24th September 2011[/editline] That's like saying "bread adds no flavor, just eat the sandwich without the bread".[/QUOTE] Last time I looked I was fairly certain bread wasn't about to go extinct because of negligent overfishing despite constant international protest

[QUOTE=ken188;32450229]That's like saying "bread adds no flavor, just eat the sandwich without the bread".[/QUOTE] Oddly enough I've seen people do that.

Good. Marine life should be the main priority of every conservation agenda. inb4 pandas.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r65FgUYdBOc&feature=player_embedded[/media] Even Gordon Ramsay says the fin spoils the flavor of the soup.

I was in San Francisco for a while, I saw that ad with Yao Ming saying no to Shark fin soup on the side of a bus. Me and my family shortly went into a Chinese restaurant,and this place was pretty damn legit, and I look on the menu, and I see Shark Fin soup available. I didn't buy it, I instead got salted fish and fried rice, and the fish had an extreme amount of salt on it, it was impossible to eat. So I sat there and drank piping hot tea.

[QUOTE=OvB;32450460][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r65FgUYdBOc&feature=player_embedded[/media] Even Gordon Ramsay says the fin spoils the flavor of the soup.[/QUOTE] I am not surprised. After being cooked for so long, it can't really keep any real taste, the proteins are all broken down and denaturated. This is a digusting show of human vanity giving price to something that never really had it on it's own, at expense of some endangered sea species.

[QUOTE=OvB;32450283]It's funny because they say it boosts sexual potency, while in reality it could potentially cause sterility if eaten in large quantities because of the high mercury content.[/QUOTE] After eating the fin of one of the most bloodthirsty, brutal animals in nature, I would probably feel pretty damn manly(and manliness + females generally leads to sexual arousal tbh). That is assuming I pulled the shark out of the water and ripped it's fin off with my teeth myself. [editline]24th September 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=The Castro;32450580]I was in San Francisco for a while, I saw that ad with Yao Ming saying no to Shark fin soup on the side of a bus. Me and my family shortly went into a Chinese restaurant,and this place was pretty damn legit, and I look on the menu, and I see Shark Fin soup available. I didn't buy it, I instead got salted fish and fried rice, and the fish had an extreme amount of salt on it, it was impossible to eat. So I sat there and drank piping hot tea.[/QUOTE] You could have sent the food back and probably gotten another dish without as much salt if you asked bro.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;32450663]After eating the fin of one of the most bloodthirsty, brutal animals in nature, I would probably feel pretty damn manly(and manliness + females generally leads to sexual arousal tbh). That is assuming I pulled the shark out of the water and ripped it's fin off with my teeth myself.[/QUOTE] I get your point, but I would feel quite the contrary if you look at the video and see how are the fins actually obtained. Not to mention the final product looks more like a jellyfish than anything else.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;32450680]I get your point, but I would feel quite the contrary if you look at the video and see how are the fins actually obtained. Not to mention the final product looks more like a jellyfish than anything else.[/QUOTE] Disclaimer: I do not [i]actually[/i] endorse people ripping shark fins off sharks with their bare teeth. But if someone did, it would probably be the manliest fucking thing I'd ever seen.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;32450722]Disclaimer: I do not [i]actually[/i] endorse people ripping shark fins off sharks with their bare teeth. But if someone did, it would probably be the manliest fucking thing I'd ever seen.[/QUOTE] A surfer once rescued a beached great white with his bare hands, then continued surfing. That's pretty manly.

[QUOTE=OvB;32450746]A surfer once rescued a beached great white with his bare hands, then continued surfing. That's pretty manly.[/QUOTE] I will give that surfer props, he is not only manly, but merciful as well.

[QUOTE=ken188;32450229]That's like saying "bread adds no flavor, just eat the sandwich without the bread".[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://www.treehugger.com/double-down-kfc.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=latin_geek;32450969][IMG]http://www.treehugger.com/double-down-kfc.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]that thing is so [I]fucking[/I] disgusting.

Japanese place nearby has shark fin soup with imitation shark fin. No idea how it tastes though.

[QUOTE=Lambeth;32451691]Japanese place nearby has shark fin soup with imitation shark fin. No idea how it tastes though.[/QUOTE] Interesting. I've always wondered if they could do it. If it truely only adds textures like culinary experts and everyone that's ever had a bowl say, it should taste nearly exactly the same. From what Gordon Ramsay described in that video, the soup itself sounds delicious, it's just being spoiled by an unnecessary ingredient.