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Sharks and us destroyed... for a bowl of soup.

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posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 01:05 AM
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I hear a lot of doom porn all over every day. But recently I discovered something that has real science behind it that should be much higher on our global awareness.

Shark populations are being decimated, many by over 90 percent in the last few decades.


All of the large sharks in the survey have decreased in population in the last 35 years, some by more than 90%.

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Why is this important? Sharks are the top preditor controlling the largest eco system in the world. Sharks eat fish who eat plankton. As the sharks are destroyed, fish they control that eat plankton will grow, which will reduce plankton levels.

This is called a Trophic Cascade


Trophic Cascade
Without any predators to limit population growth, herbivorous prey species reproduce without check, and all of them are hungry. More herbivores eat more plants, and without anything to control them, they can quickly degrade their habitat. This puts pressure on the plants that they depend on for food, sometimes to the point of impeding plant reproduction and defoliating the habitat. This is known as a trophic cascade, and in extreme cases, can lead to the complete destruction of the ecosystem

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Why is that important? Because 50-85% of our oxygen comes from plankton.



Bottom line: Tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton contribute 50 to 85 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.

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Plankton levels have fallen by 40 percent during roughly the same time period as we've seen shark populations decimated. Scientists are blaming "Global Warming" but interestingly enough, the plankton levels have been falling along with shark populations since 1950:


the global population of phytoplankton has fallen about 40 percent since 1950.

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Maybe the worst part of this is the reason they are being killed so fast: Shark Fin Soup.


All told, up to 70 million sharks are culled annually for the trade, despite the fact that 30% of shark species are threatened with extinction. Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Spain and Mexico land the most sharks, according a recent survey of global shark populations conducted by the Pew Environment Group. "Sharks have made it through multiple mass extinctions on our planet," says Matt Rand, director of Pew's Global Shark Conservation division. "Now many species are going to go the way of the dinosaur — for a bowl of soup."

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If we continue to destroy sharks we are destroying our oxygen supply. This is long term suicide. By our action or inaction we literally hold the fate of the shark, and the world, in our hands... all for a bowl of soup.




posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 01:31 AM
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oh my! no just kidding. who cares. besides, shark fin soup IS TASTY ! ! ! ! why is it that you feel that there is "doom porn" ? every generation has to experince there own mortality, because, well, we're MORTAL ! i get that "death" bothers you (why are humans so hung up on it?) but if you think about it, say 3 minutes ago the SUn let out a CME big enough to turn Jupiter into a snickerdoodle. that means this conversation is over 5 mintues from now! enjoy the time you have. because it's all the time you have. the Universe deplores life in all forms. that's why ti does it's best to kill it if it finds it unprepared. and believe me the human race is unprepared. roll the dice ! you have 2 minutes !



posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 02:13 AM
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tencap77
oh my! no just kidding. who cares. besides, shark fin soup IS TASTY ! ! ! ! why is it that you feel that there is "doom porn" ? every generation has to experince there own mortality, because, well, we're MORTAL ! i get that "death" bothers you (why are humans so hung up on it?) but if you think about it, say 3 minutes ago the SUn let out a CME big enough to turn Jupiter into a snickerdoodle. that means this conversation is over 5 mintues from now! enjoy the time you have. because it's all the time you have. the Universe deplores life in all forms. that's why ti does it's best to kill it if it finds it unprepared. and believe me the human race is unprepared. roll the dice ! you have 2 minutes !


Thank you for that well reasoned reply...

/eyeroll

By the way the fin doesn't add taste, only fiber. The soup is flavored with broth from beef or chicken...


It’s just that shark fin soup tastes like nothing and I’ve never liked it.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey taste tested it on camera and said the same. So did a reporter from Time, who found it, ” underwhelming.” The taste from the soup is actually derived from the broth.

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ETA... By the way, the sharks are pulled into the boat, their fins cut off and tossed back in the ocean ALIVE. This process is inhumane in the extreme. The sharks float to the bottom and drown or bleed to death.

edit on 22-1-2014 by pianopraze because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 03:57 AM
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'Finning' is a disgusting practice. Reel in a shark, cut off the fins and toss it back into the water to suffer.

I don't have a problem with eating animals or wearing leather/fur. I take issue with making them suffer. Catch a shark and KILL it humanely and quickly. Don't just lop off the fins so the poor creature can't swim and drowns.

I did a thread on this and am so glad you have too. Shark fin soup is a 'delicacy' for jackasses. Pay the extra 10 cents to have the creature killed humanely. Bullet to the head is far better than chopping off limbs while the animal is still alive and tossing it back into the ocean to drown.

I don't mind killing something and eating it. I DO mind torturing it and making it suffer. Especially when the alternative is cheap and easy. Catch it, kill, THEN fin it. It's a disgusting waste, but don't make something suffer when it's so easy to just whack it on the head or put a bullet in it. Pretty sure people wasting money on a purely fancy dish can afford the few cents to have the shark killed humanely. The whole point is that it's expensive, it doesn't taste good by itself.

I don't have any problem with hunting. I would have a huge problem with it if it entailed lopping off a deer's legs and skinning it alive then drowning it. Just because that extra bullet or effort (knife stroke) is too much.



posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 04:12 AM
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reply to post by pianopraze
 


Sharks eat fish who eat plankton. As the sharks are destroyed, fish they control that eat plankton will grow, which will reduce plankton levels.


so what about those pesky humans that also eat fish???.... i could be wrong.. but im pretty sure humans eat way more fish than sharks do...




posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 09:24 AM
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reply to post by ElMuerte
 




so what about those pesky humans that also eat fish???.... i could be wrong.. but im pretty sure humans eat way more fish than sharks do..


hehe...well reasoned logic, furthermore fishermen complain that the worlds seafood is running out. With sharks decreasing maybe fish numbers will increase and the fiashermen get to stay employed.

Oh hang on lets create another "endangered species" so in 20 years time the 'elite" can go "big fish hunting" meh...like the huge tracts of land and sea turned into wildlife conservation areas. Do you really think they are setting these areas aside for your children or the Elites?

google "sierra club depopulation agenda"

from
www.mnn.com...



That policy has radically altered our forest landscapes, where fires set by lightning or Native Americans had always limited forest stocks to roughly a few dozen trees per acre. All that changed in 1910, when a series of huge wildfires led the federal government to declare war on wildfires through a program that now costs more than $2 billion a year. [In Photos: Devastating Colorado Wildfires] The result: roughly 112 to 172 more trees per acre in mountain forests of the West. This process of unnatural afforestation (the establishment of trees or tree stands where none previously were) may sound green and benevolent, but the reality is quite different. The new trees' canopies collectively intercept 20 to 30 percent of snow and rain that can no longer seep into the ground, and each additional tree's roots suck 18 gallons of moisture up out of the ground before runoff can feed thirsty creeks.


Last I heard trees gave off oxygen, I think the declining plankton will be more than compensated by the extra trees through reafforestation. In all honesty the method of fin extraction is barbaric, and should be stopped.




Shark populations are being decimated, many by over 90 percent in the last few decades


Er no...to decimate means to take one tenth or 10 percent, NOT 90%



posted on Jan, 22 2014 @ 04:34 PM
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reply to post by TheConstruKctionofLight
 


First of all I agree with you on the "elite" comment and agenda. But we are talking about a horse of a different color here. 90 percent reduction in population is a disaster.

Our over fishing is probably the reasons there is not as big a reduction in plankton as we might otherwise. But it also shows we are absolutely destroying the ocean ecosystem. We have got to stop this. Trees cannot make up for the deficit. Plankton produces a vast majority of Earth's oxygen. Some estimates as high as 90 percent.

As far as the "decimate" being 10 percent, that is definition 2, but I used the word correctly decimate also means definition 3:



1 to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2 to exact a tax of 10 percent from -poor as a decimated Cavalier — John Dryden-
3 a : to reduce drastically especially in number -cholera decimated the population-
b : to cause great destruction or harm to -firebombs decimated the city- -an industry decimated by recession-

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posted on Jan, 23 2014 @ 02:48 PM
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Hi animal fans.

One said:

I don't have a problem with eating animals or wearing leather/fur.

Welllll. . .see this:
www.fourrure-torture.com...
www.fourrure-torture.com/fourrure-chine.html

Blue skies.



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