(If you find this post informative, you might like to check out these.)
Please help the sharks, help ensure Sherman’s Lagoon will always have a Shark who has kin beyond it. All it takes is a bit of your time, some doodling, an envelope, and a stamp. You have a lot of time to get it done too, all the way to October.
Click on picture to see original artwork, and find out more on how to help. (Filched off Dawn’s blog)
Consider these facts about sharks’ fin, the dish:
- Sharks’ fin is cartilage. That is, it is TASTELESS by itself. What gives Sharks’ fin soup its taste? All the soup stock, crab, and other expensive ingredients added to it (which are usually threatened or endangered too – many fisheries are on the brink or collapsed, so much so that sustainable seafood is starting to look like a facsimile of the Holy Grail). Appreciators of Shark’s fin soup are really in the same league as that duped auntie who dug, for as long the slurping lasted, Stone Soup (the version I remember tells of an old traveller who managed to weasel his way into getting the old wretched lady of the house who grudgingly took him in for the night into opening her deceptively decrepit cupboards to not only make a fantabulous soup but also to lay out a spread fit for a royal get-together. He left early the next morning, graciously leaving the magic stone behind for the old lady whose mind finally digested the gist of the sham with the warming light).
- Sharks are dying because of indiscriminate, wasteful ways of catching sharks which endanger other marine life, and cruel fin-harvesting methodology
- The latest estimates show that as many as 73 million sharks are killed yearly for the shark fin industry, and the animals’ slow reproductive rates make them extremely vulnerable to extinction. The inhumane and wasteful methods used to acquire shark fins are just as disturbing. Because of weak laws and poor enforcement, millions of sharks are “finned” while still alive, and their helpless bodies are thrown back into the water, where they endure long, painful deaths from suffocation, blood loss or predation by other species. (Source)
- Mercury poisoning is rife in seafood. The higher up the food-chain an animal is, the higher the mercury levels in its body. No prizes for guessing where the shark figures in the mercury poisoning billboard, and certainly none for figuring where WE stand.
This is a list of known articles and letters to the press about the sharks’ fin in Singapore. incidentally, last Friday’s issue of mypaper carried a commentary by Miss Esther Au Yong called “Save Sharks, But Also Save Our Culture”. Her impetus for writing this piece seem to be the recent Asian Dive Expo where the plight of sharks was highlighted. While I applaud her for seeing the immediacy of how the sharks’ survival is tied with the availability and gourmet status of sharks’ fin soup, I strongly disagreed with her caveat that shark’s fin soup can be revived when shark numbers are sustainable again – there is no eating sharks’ fin soup without guilt, not unless we want to see the day the marine-ecosystem collapse arrive sooner. Her rationale for wanting to keep the day of lifting her proposed sharks’ fin ban in sight is to preserve the dish’ status as a cultural heritage of the Chinese.
(ADDED to clarify and avoid confusion like comment-leaver no 3 seem to be in) Sharks ARE disappearing as fin chopping rises. As long as the problems that caused sharks to be fished and finned so wantonly remains, ie demand for sharks’ fin and a willingness on consumers’ part to PAY for it, somebody will fish for and fin sharks, to hell with sustainability and humane methods of harvesting. The domino effect will ensure that other marine animals sharing the same neighbourhood as sharks will be affected too, and they won’t even get the dignity of being labelled by-catch, that is a term more often tagged on to, ironically, sharks. More and more sharks are in the danger zone of extinction. While this may not seem like something of concern for the man in the street, it should be. It’s like taking blocks recklessly out of the Jenga pile – how many times can you cry “Jenga” before it collapses?
As a Chinese, I feel that sharks’ fin is tastelessly expensive, an unsustainable enterprise that gourmands condone at the deteriment of the environment. Whether shaks’ fin soup is considered a delicacy is all in the mind; whether something is worth preserving is a question best viewed with logic, compassion and a dash of Zen. Slavery, male chauvinisms, the binding of women’s feet, the ‘virture’ of uneducated females, imperialism, polygamy, feudalism. All these are intimately tied to Chinese culture, history and the racial psyche. They were integral aspects. Do we, in the name of preserving culture, call for the revival of these parts of the Chinese cultural heritage?
Besides, sharks fin soup being the pricey dish that it is, I can’t imagine anyone happier than the restaurant serving the dish at every wedding reception (the groom is probably wincing at the debt he’s incurred to throw the banquet, while the bride would have no idea of what food is as she goes on her costume-changing roundabout). In spite of the sensitivity created by the on-going Chinese/anti-Chinese sentiments surrounding the Beijing Olympics, I say that Miss Au Yong’s call for ban-revival is so much “Cultural justification my foot“. We should just ban it, period, just like bear-bile farming.
I think the vaulted “mark of prestige at our scions’ wedding” pedestal eager Chinese parents insist on shoving the dish onto, is a very funny joke considering that you see this banner at EVERY single pasar malam (flea market in areas outside Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia), touting sharks’ fin soup for a dollar or two. Peanuts compared to restaurant prices.
There’s even halal sharks’ fin soup.
Don’t think I am not sympathetic of couples who would like to exclude sharks’ fin from their banquet but instead bow to parental pressure to include it. My cousin, who’s a foodie’s foodie is getting married this August. When he announced wedding plans, which included a menu with no shark’s fin soup, btmao and I dragged dropped jaws around for a month. It’s not just his reputation as a bottomless gut, but also his mothers’ sterling traditional view on prestige. We had never thought it could happen with him, especially not when our own sister meekly accepted and went along with her in-laws’ assumption of sharks’ fin appearing as wedding banquet dish number 2. But between the initial announcement and Chines New Year, he caved in to his mother’s demand to include sharks’ fin soup. I am disappointed, but not surprised. Filial piety exacts much obligations, even unto our moral stands. I just wish all these couples HAD witnessed first hand the shark fishing/finning. That might have stiffened their resolve to stick to their decision to say NO to sharks’ fin soup.
Perhaps there is a way out of the conundrum. As a converted vegetarian, I have tasted sharks’ fin soup, both bona-fide and mock. The difference? Mock tastes much better, in my view. No fishy or funny smell, and certainly no ickety feeling as the fin slide down your throat. You CAN find great tasting mock sharks’ fin, you just have to look (like us minions did). Mock fins are healthy too, being made from finely slicing a melon that’s called colloquially, sharks’ fin melon.
Walking the talk and speaking up against something taken for granted is difficult, as Hong Kong University’s vice chancellor found out, but it shouldn’t stop us, it must not stop us. Get doodling!
(For any who have not had the misfortune to taste sharks’ fin soup, you really aren’t missing anything.)
ADDITIONAL REF
(
If you find this post informative, you might like to check out these.)
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(If you find this post informative, you might like to check out these.)
Please help the sharks, help ensure Sherman’s Lagoon will always have a Shark who has kin beyond it. All it takes is a bit of your time, some doodling, an envelope, and a stamp. You have a lot of time to get it done too, all the way to October.
Click on picture to see original artwork, and find out more on how to help. (Filched off Dawn’s blog)
Consider these facts about sharks’ fin, the dish:
This is a list of known articles and letters to the press about the sharks’ fin in Singapore. incidentally, last Friday’s issue of mypaper carried a commentary by Miss Esther Au Yong called “Save Sharks, But Also Save Our Culture”. Her impetus for writing this piece seem to be the recent Asian Dive Expo where the plight of sharks was highlighted. While I applaud her for seeing the immediacy of how the sharks’ survival is tied with the availability and gourmet status of sharks’ fin soup, I strongly disagreed with her caveat that shark’s fin soup can be revived when shark numbers are sustainable again – there is no eating sharks’ fin soup without guilt, not unless we want to see the day the marine-ecosystem collapse arrive sooner. Her rationale for wanting to keep the day of lifting her proposed sharks’ fin ban in sight is to preserve the dish’ status as a cultural heritage of the Chinese.
(ADDED to clarify and avoid confusion like comment-leaver no 3 seem to be in) Sharks ARE disappearing as fin chopping rises. As long as the problems that caused sharks to be fished and finned so wantonly remains, ie demand for sharks’ fin and a willingness on consumers’ part to PAY for it, somebody will fish for and fin sharks, to hell with sustainability and humane methods of harvesting. The domino effect will ensure that other marine animals sharing the same neighbourhood as sharks will be affected too, and they won’t even get the dignity of being labelled by-catch, that is a term more often tagged on to, ironically, sharks. More and more sharks are in the danger zone of extinction. While this may not seem like something of concern for the man in the street, it should be. It’s like taking blocks recklessly out of the Jenga pile – how many times can you cry “Jenga” before it collapses?
As a Chinese, I feel that sharks’ fin is tastelessly expensive, an unsustainable enterprise that gourmands condone at the deteriment of the environment. Whether shaks’ fin soup is considered a delicacy is all in the mind; whether something is worth preserving is a question best viewed with logic, compassion and a dash of Zen. Slavery, male chauvinisms, the binding of women’s feet, the ‘virture’ of uneducated females, imperialism, polygamy, feudalism. All these are intimately tied to Chinese culture, history and the racial psyche. They were integral aspects. Do we, in the name of preserving culture, call for the revival of these parts of the Chinese cultural heritage?
Besides, sharks fin soup being the pricey dish that it is, I can’t imagine anyone happier than the restaurant serving the dish at every wedding reception (the groom is probably wincing at the debt he’s incurred to throw the banquet, while the bride would have no idea of what food is as she goes on her costume-changing roundabout). In spite of the sensitivity created by the on-going Chinese/anti-Chinese sentiments surrounding the Beijing Olympics, I say that Miss Au Yong’s call for ban-revival is so much “Cultural justification my foot“. We should just ban it, period, just like bear-bile farming.
I think the vaulted “mark of prestige at our scions’ wedding” pedestal eager Chinese parents insist on shoving the dish onto, is a very funny joke considering that you see this banner at EVERY single pasar malam (flea market in areas outside Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia), touting sharks’ fin soup for a dollar or two. Peanuts compared to restaurant prices.
There’s even halal sharks’ fin soup.
Don’t think I am not sympathetic of couples who would like to exclude sharks’ fin from their banquet but instead bow to parental pressure to include it. My cousin, who’s a foodie’s foodie is getting married this August. When he announced wedding plans, which included a menu with no shark’s fin soup, btmao and I dragged dropped jaws around for a month. It’s not just his reputation as a bottomless gut, but also his mothers’ sterling traditional view on prestige. We had never thought it could happen with him, especially not when our own sister meekly accepted and went along with her in-laws’ assumption of sharks’ fin appearing as wedding banquet dish number 2. But between the initial announcement and Chines New Year, he caved in to his mother’s demand to include sharks’ fin soup. I am disappointed, but not surprised. Filial piety exacts much obligations, even unto our moral stands. I just wish all these couples HAD witnessed first hand the shark fishing/finning. That might have stiffened their resolve to stick to their decision to say NO to sharks’ fin soup.
Perhaps there is a way out of the conundrum. As a converted vegetarian, I have tasted sharks’ fin soup, both bona-fide and mock. The difference? Mock tastes much better, in my view. No fishy or funny smell, and certainly no ickety feeling as the fin slide down your throat. You CAN find great tasting mock sharks’ fin, you just have to look (like us minions did). Mock fins are healthy too, being made from finely slicing a melon that’s called colloquially, sharks’ fin melon.
Walking the talk and speaking up against something taken for granted is difficult, as Hong Kong University’s vice chancellor found out, but it shouldn’t stop us, it must not stop us. Get doodling!
(For any who have not had the misfortune to taste sharks’ fin soup, you really aren’t missing anything.)
ADDITIONAL REF
14 Comments
Posted in Abuse and Cruelty, Advocacy, Animal helpers online, Animals, Asia, China, Endangered species, Environment / Going green / Conservation, Letters & Rants, News, Rambling / Minion wunderings, Singapore, Social Commentary, SOS, World
Tagged Add new tag, Advocacy, Animals, chinese culture, chinese food, conservation, cruelty, environment, food, gourmet cruelty, jim toomey, marine life, sharks, sharks's fin soup, sherman's lagoon, soup