More on Shark Fin Soup

I got an email in my inbox today which read:

Hi Toren,
I’m writing an article about the rising consumption of shark fin soup and the declining number of sharks in the world. I’m interested in seeing if there’s more of the stuff being eaten in Lower Mainland restaurants, would you happen to know if that’s the case? And why did you start a list of restaurants that serve shark fin soup?
Best,
Bryan Zandberg
Reporter
The Tyee
www.thetyee.ca

The list (here) was lifted wholesale from benthic.ca, as noted in the title of the post. But I talked more personally about the irresponsibility of shark fin soup in my post “No One Wants To Talk About Shark Fin Soup.”

I’m not sure if I ever blogged about my more recent encounter with it, which I will now relate:

A couple months ago Geisel and Deanna and I were looking to get some sushi here in Kitsilano. Now everyone knows that the Eatery is one of the best places for sushi, so I suggested we meet there. As usual there was a big lineup and I hate lineups, so I suggested that we go to the place across the street, which was empty. I can’t recall the name but it is quite literally right across Broadway. We looked at the menu and spent about 5-10 minutes putting together a list of what we wanted before I noticed they had shark fin soup on the menu. I felt bad for wasting Geisel’s time but I did not want to patronize that restaurant, so we went further down the street to yet another sushi joint, devoid of shark fin soup, but increasingly burdened with the Eatery’s overflow.

I am not one to lament over another animal’s pain if it’s being killed for the purpose of food, but shark harvesting is incredibly wasteful, devastating to the environment and completely unnecessary. That’s all.