'I pledge not to eat shark's fin.'

[sundaymorningstaple]

^^^^ +1

My Dad, RIP, was on the invasion landing on Okinawa in WWII. To him, all Asians were "Japs" and it wasn't until my son was born in 1989 that he allowed himself to once again visit Asia. But, to him, the Japanese were the embodiment of evil and remained "Japs" till he died.

[Sergei82]

offtop...

There are so many animals that you can farm and eat without harming any ecosystems! For example, rabbits! We have several rabbit farms in our country. A rabbit is ready to breed in 3 months, 2 rabbits can procreate to around 100 by the end of the year. They don't eat much, their meat is nutritious, moreover if they're introduced to some area, they may turn into an infestation there...

But no, many countries ban eating them because animal protection society think they are so cute that they cannot be eaten! Sharks are not as cute though...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Before I moved to Singapore in the early 80's I had a fishtank in my living room that was 5' x 2' x 2.5'. in it were only two creatures. One was a snowflake moray eel and the other was a leopard shark. (for the record, leopard sharks quite tank friendly in so much as they are very slow growing and are very aquarium friendly. Not really cute but a very handsome shark I must say .

[JR8]

My Dad, RIP, was on the invasion landing on Okinawa in WWII. To him, all Asians were "Japs" and it wasn't until my son was born in 1989 that he allowed himself to once again visit Asia. But, to him, the Japanese were the embodiment of evil and remained "Japs" till he died.

Lets call a spade a spade; they were evil. Or another way: they had no 'moral values' in how they inflicted death.

Ref: Geneva Convention

[JR8]

Before I moved to Singapore in the early 80's I had a fishtank in my living room that was 5' x 2' x 2.5'. in it were only two creatures. One was a snowflake moray eel and the other was a leopard shark. (for the record, leopard sharks quite tank friendly in so much as they are very slow growing and are very aquarium friendly. Not really cute but a very handsome shark I must say .

Yah, very beautiful fish. Morays too.

Reminds me of my local beer shop in NYC. The guy had a huge tank with peppered morays in it... no idea.

[sensei_]

My dad calls the Japanese 'Japs' but he served and fought against them in WW2 so what to do....

We've moved on right. It's like calling black people niggers, it reflects on you, rather than them.

Grow up. Don't show your ignorance for all to see.

well there you go. in that case, 12 years of australian schooling and calling the japanese by their shortened name certainly did me good.

Lets call a spade a spade; they were evil. Or another way: they had no 'moral values' in how they inflicted death.

Ref: Geneva Convention

but using nuclear bombs is a much more moral way of fighting.

[JR8]

Well IMO Japanese have a kind of suppressed viciousness or brutality.

Don't get me wrong, I loved working there, loved the country and would go back there NOW just to experience the place again. (and the chicks are wild and great in bed, but I digress).


The morality of nuclear bombs. Yah it's a good question that one.

[nutnut]

You know what, I tend to agree with JR8 on this, I don't appreciate the outright wastage of throwing a perfectly edible animal back i the water to die after cutting off the most (in my opinion) disgusting part! It would be better if they caught the whole shark! I love Shark steaks.

[JR8]

I typed 'Oh God please help me' into Youtube, and it came back with a Lionel Ritchie track....


I mean WTF man...

[earthfriendly]

offtop...

There are so many animals that you can farm and eat without harming any ecosystems! For example, rabbits! We have several rabbit farms in our country. A rabbit is ready to breed in 3 months, 2 rabbits can procreate to around 100 by the end of the year.

But rabbit and other land animals taste very different from the sea creatures. If I need to eat land animal, my preference is beef. Living in north America, a diet of chicken and beef can sometimes drive me up the wall. I have a need to taste the wide variety of textures. It is one way I experience the world. I read about an African who migrated to USA, he would give anything just to have the taste of bush meat (primate) one more time. It is a very primal kind of need for those who are very into their food.

I grew up with huge myriad of food. My mum blow a big portion of family budget on food e.g. bird's nest, abalone, crab, shark's fin, sea cucumber and all kinds of seafood. Most of the time we eat it at home. She would welcome me home with a big pot of birds nest soap. After I got off the plane and when I stepped into her house, the smell of gingseng steeping in birds' nest tells me I am "home". On trips overseas, she would try to source out food items e.g. gingseng in Korea, western gingseng in North American, sea cucumber from China. One of my all time favorite food is intestine (pigs'). It is about the texture. You can't get that chewy fatty texture from anywhere else.

The way they harvest the sharks' fins was very shocking to me. So I avoid. You would think the fishermen would be smart to do it sustainably. It is self-destructive towards their own livelihood.

[taxico]

i bring all sorts of half eaten junk (no man-made materials) down into the sea when i scuba dive.

(eg, apple cores, banana peels, fried fish heads, dough nuts, etc)

the fish slurps it up and every body gets excited (i'm talking about you, OWS certification divers).

wouldn't the finless shark get devoured too?

[cheekysquirrel]

I suppose my point is that if you could farm sharks, then that might lift all my objections. It is the illicit trade, the live finning, and the side-destruction that it causes that gets me. Plus as I said, it has no taste and no nutrition.

I agree there are [what I'd - maybe - class as immoral] farming processes in Europe. Like veal. Again, I have had it, but given the choice I don't/won't.

[Sergei82]

farming, farming… think big! Farming is still a waste of shark meat. How about synthesizing shark fins directly in centrifuges? Or no! Can synthesize the whole soup at once!
We can synthesize collagen and gelatine. A little bit of creativity and shark fin is not a problem!

[Sergei82]

farming, farming… think big! Farming is still a waste of shark meat. How about synthesizing shark fins directly in centrifuges? Or no! Can synthesize the whole soup at once!
We can synthesize collagen and gelatine. A little bit of creativity and shark fin is not a problem!

[sundaymorningstaple]

If the Chinese can create fake chicken eggs then anything is possible. Process soybean into vegan shark fin like they do to resemble other things.

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/04/24/how ... cken-eggs/