Thank you for sharing this. Our abuse of the ecosystem is frightening. It seems so strange that fishing cultures would be so self-destructive.

As a native of Long Island New York, I can tell you that our fishing community has suffered quite a lot from lack of stewardship of their trade. But that was just local (generally speaking).

I think the global shark trade is close to the brink of decimating itself, and along with it, our oceans will change dramatically.

Wow,very cool and informative.
People have the same attitude towars sharks as they do snakes.
Its an ignorant world and these beasts are our roommates so we best learn to live with them and quit fearing them.
Its also amazingly ignorant that we as a species are capable of wiping out another species that has been around for that long.
Star and flag from me.

I will absolutely have to check this DOC out. I love sharks! I used to always see these animals on discovery channel, never realizing their awesomeness until i had an encounter first hand. I was in Miami on the beach chilling out in the water when i noticed a dark shadow in the clear water comming straight for me. It was a 6 foot Maco that proceeded to brush against my leg. Thats all it did though, and i had never been more scared in my life. I will always have respect for these creatures, and it is horrible what some people do to them.

Thank you for posting this.

I gave up eating fish a few years back. The fishing industries in many countries are embarrasingly unsustainable and I really wish more people would come to realize this. Of course there are people who fish in local lakes and streams and that is fine but the majority of the fish sold in the supermarket are from these industries.

Sharks are really amazing creatures if one bothers to study them. They are some of the most adaptable ocean animals on this planet, estimated to be almost 400 million years old. What a shame if we wipe them all out from our irresponsible fishing practices.

Star and Flag for you, OP

Allison

I thank you for posting this as well.

Doesn't matter if we think we're greater than animals and that we can subdue them whenever we want because if WE want to live we have to PROTECT other species.

I never eat things way up in the food web. I only eat things that are in abundance; and for fish, I go fishing by myself.

I watched that movie a while back, a must see. There's also a book with awesome pictures, my little girl likes it a lot.

The worst part in the fishing of shark is that we don't even eat the whole fish. The fishermans usually cut the back fin and dump the shark back in the water. Without it's fin, it cannot survive. The fins are used in asian cooking. I went to eat in a small restaurant in chinatown-Montreal and they where serving shark fin soup. It doesn't look very good, I would never eat it ... and is was pretty expensive.

The first time I saw a shark in the water was one of the most memorable day of my life. Seeing a 15 feet shark pass a few meters above your head is breathtaking.

Save the sharks !

I've loved sharks since I was a child and was always amazed that they had barely needed to evolve for millions of years.

For me the destruction of our planets rich variety of life is our most pressing evironmental problem it is our duty to protect what we have left.

We've just ordered it from our local library.

I am forever grateful to those people who passionately go out and make documentaries
that tell it like it is, tells us who we are and empower us with information that will hopefully reduce the destructive behavior of our species.




[edit on 24-3-2009 by spinkyboo]

This is an intelligent and important topic that you've set up for all to see. Thank you for the video and for the awakening.

Well done!

Thanks for trying to make the community aware of this disastrous trade that has exploded in the past two decades. I'm currently writing my semester term paper on the Effects of Shark Finning on Ocean Ecosystems and have found some extremely disturbing facts. I'll share what i found as the most surprising.

• Shark finning indiscriminately kills between 50 to 100 million sharks every year of many different species
  
• Shark finning by any U.S. vessel is illegal, however illegal fishing flourishes and in one instance the U.S. Coast Guard seized 32 tons of shark fins stuffed within the Hawaiian-based King Diamond II that had been fishing in Mexican waters.
  
• between 93-99% of large sharks off of the North American coast have been since the 1970's and that more than a fifth of all shark species worldwide face extinction.
  
• The main and most effective method used to fish for sharks is longline fishing. Fishing vessels tow fishing lines up to 60 miles long behind them with secondary lines branching off of it containing baited hooks and captures thousands of sharks, as well as sea turtles, sea birds, and other marine life at a time.
  
• Only 17 countries have banned shark finning worldwide.
  

All driven by Asia's desire for a flavorless piece of cartilage that has been found to contain significant amounts of mercury and other toxic chemicals.

Without sharks the order of world ocean ecology will fall into disarray. We have to do something to stop it.

When I was about 5, i was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up.
1. a fireman
2. a shark

neither one worked out!


They've been around for hundreds of millions of years in one form or another.
we could wipe them out for the love of soup?

Lets leave the big fished alone as well as the air breathers like dolphins and whales alone as well. If they all get killed then the world will want to know why no one did anything about it. Ofcourse by that time it will be too late. It will truly be a sorry state in this world if this should happen. Take away anything and there will be no subsatute for it. Maybe you can read it in bood. That would be all.

Although I completely abhor the practice of "De-Finning Sharks", and I find it to be a complete and utter act of abuse and torture, I dare say that the World's Shark Populations are FAR from disappearing.

I travel to Florida and the Bahamas often, and as an accomplished individual of both Surface, and Undersea activities, I dare say that the sharks in this Tropical Caribbean/Atlantic Region have been exploding in Population. As a matter of fact, many Marine Biologists have stated that if anything is being decimated, it is rather the Shark's Natural Prey of certain Fish Species, and many of the Shark attacks are a result of Inland progression due to this very factor.

I do agree however, as every Animal Species, as well as Mankind, has its rightful and duty bound place amongst the Earth's Ecosystem.

I just don't get it, why do they cut off the fins when according to those who have eaten them they have hardly any taste. I know some cultures see it as a health tonic and stuff but there isn't any evidence for that. I happily munch on meat, but the animals are generally killed in a humane way. This de-fenning stuff is just a disgrace.

to be correlated with this,

is the dying of the coral reefs everywhere,
considered as the source, the very root of life

it seems indeed that without corals any form of life won't just be possible on this planet (whereas the shark problem endangered current living species but not life as a whole if i understood well)