Shark Fin Ban in Metro Vancouver

Do you support this? If so, do you have any moral problems eating foie gras? Would you support a foie gras ban too?

There are a lot of problems with the shark finning industry and I do support a ban (fish maw is way better), but the way people outside of the culture are criticizing it is ethnocentric and borderline racist .

Case in point, hipsters trying to provoke a fight in Richmond (note the abundance of racist fuckwads in the comments section):
http://www.theprovince.com/technology/Shark shouting match erupts over soup Richmond Jade Seafood/7130185/story.html

Comments like the above make me hipsters are simply parroting what they learned from Gordon Ramsay "documentaries". If you're going to protest something, educate yourselves because it's not just a status thing. Not only the rich eat it. The cost is overblown by the media. There will be those that eat it to flaunt their status, but I would argue for most ethnic Chinese in the Lower Mainland, it's a celebratory dish.

I find it ludicrous that people make claims about the lack of flavour and nutritional value when they've never had shark fin before .

tl;dr Fight the good fight, but there's no need to be culturally insensitive pricks about it. It's easy to judge when shark fin isn't a part of your life. Ethnocentrism is a step backwards.

 

PS: If you smoke marijuana and are against shark finning, have you examined the moral and ethical consequences of the drug trade and its destructive effects on society (crime, murder, exploitation)?

 

Yum yum, no ban plz.

 

I have had it at a few weddings - it is meh..... It is a waste if the whole animals isn't eaten but if the species isn't endangered there are far worse foods out there. Gruesomeness aside, as long as they aren't doing what we did (or let happen) to your cod stocks it isn't much of an issue.

 

Vancouver city council votes in favour of a ban. They're hoping to have a bylaw to vote on within a year.

More ignorance:

 

'it has no taste, it is the soup that taste good?' gwai los being naive. i agree they are just 'parroting' what they hear from gordon ramsey and western newspapers. probably has never tried it themselves.

 

That argument bothers me because it's meaningless. Even if shark fin was completely tasteless, we value many things as food items solely for their textural qualities and characteristics beyond taste (gelatin, tapioca and agar come to mind). There is more to food and cuisine than taste alone .

Similarly, the comments about its nutritional value are irrelevant as well. Shark fin doesn't have amazing nutritional content, but that's the case with many foods that we enjoy. Contrast this with bacon which is high in saturated fat and salt. What about all the foods that we eat that are pure sugar? You're not going to get diabetes or heart disease from shark fin soup.

Don't get me wrong, there are many good arguments (ecological, ethical) in favour of banning shark fin, but the general public (particularly in BC) is misinformed and spewing irrelevant and borderline racist opinions. I suspect many people are simply using the shark fin issue to unleash their racist side.

If people are going to protest something, they should at least inform themselves of the issues instead of jumping on the hate bandwagon. All the ignorance is simply clouding the good arguments for the ban.

 

I support the ban on shark fin, but only because sharks are endangered.

 

According to Wikipedia, sharks are finned alive and tossed back into the ocean, unable to swim, hunt or survive.

Is the shark's meat not edible? Can they make fish and chips out of shark's meat?

If sharks are ate entirely like how mackerels, pollock or salmon are eaten, perhaps there is less fuss about banning shark's fin?

 

As a child, I drank a lot of soup with my meals. I’m Asian, and I used to be very asthmatic and constantly sick so I drank soups to get better. In my household there is a soup for practically any common sickness and there are literally hundreds of weird ingredients to brew with to better your health. I was, and still am, a soup connoisseur.

I loved shark fin soup. Many people will say that they don’t understand why shark fin is used, it is a cultural thing, it’s traditional, etc. I’ve seen a couple videos on youtube trying this soup and people cannot fathom why this is a delicacy. They say the broth is the main reason it’s good, the fin is only texture, etc.

I was a ten year old who could tell the difference between imitation and real shark fin. That is how much I loved it. One time my dad got into an argument with a proprietor of a restaurant on my word (and the opinion of others after receiving mine) that it was fake shark fin. My family wasn’t rich by any means, we simply got invited to many banquets and such when I was young where they served expensive food.

I feel a massive amount of guilt today. I watched a documentary a few years back on shark fishing, and I was weeping by the end of it. I told myself I wouldn’t support this industry anymore. No more soup of this kind.

I still long for the taste and I hate that I do.

Most people are correct; it doesn’t taste like much. However, it is not bland. But there is a hint of a weird taste only describable as shark – slightly metallic, tiniest bit fishy, and there is an age to it…like an aged cheese type of taste (minus the cheese, of course, it’s just the aged part). It’s incredibly hard to describe. The texture is crunchy, almost the way a fish maw is but a little more solid. It pairs beautifully with the soup it is served in.

Imitation shark fin does not have any of that. It is basically a noodle with no flavour, and the crunch is completely off. It cannot replicate the experience you receive from real shark fin.

I only write this because I saw a post with a dead shark in the parking lot and someone mentioning shark fins as food, and the thread going on about how others said it does not have taste.

They are wrong.

They are quick to condemn a horrible practice, and justifiably so. But there is a reason why that this is a delicacy, along with many other dishes with items that do not agree with Western culture – you have to eat it with an open mind to understand why.

 

white people contribute to declining shark populations too...

• Australia: First shark killed as controversial culling policy begins
• North American health craze for fish oil is wiping out the world’s rarest shark