Shark or men more scary?

Sharks has been part of the Chinese delicacy since thousand of years ago. And it's not shark's meat they're after. They are craving for Shark's fin only. Shark fin soup originated in Asia and recipes date back over 2000 years. The soup was once a rarity available only to the aristocracy, primarily because it was so difficult to create. However, times have changed, fishing boats have improved, fishing nets are exponentially longer, and China's growing middle class has created an increased demand for this "delicacy."

Shark-fin soup was just a regional delicacy in Canton, south China, until the late 1980s. The Beijing government had derided shark-fin soup as a symbol of elitism, but it ended this stance in 1987. Increased East Asian affluence quickly made shark-fin soup popular at wedding banquets, birthdays, feasts and business dinners, as a way of honoring guests. The demand has escalated astronomically in the last 15 years, and now it's a standard dish.

Hong Kong has roughly 50 percent possibly up to 80 percent of the world trade in shark fin, with the major suppliers being Europe, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United States, Yemen, India, Japan, and Mexico. I've seen entire streets there lined with shark-fin shops; huge burlap bags brimming with shark fins are stacked into warehouses. Its safe to assume that most of the shark fins in Chinatown are from Hong Kong.

It's cooked for a very long time until the shark fin separates into needles of cartilage that look like clear noodles. The fin itself has no taste, but it's served with a broth of chicken, ham and shiitake that it absorbs. The final texture is supposed to be interesting.

Shark-fin soup is traditionally regarded in Chinese medicine as a tonic. They claimed it's good at strengthening the waist, supplementing vital energy, nourishing blood, invigorating kidney and lung and improving digestion, according to the Compendium of Materia Medica. Modern nutritionists find it rich in protein, and the large amount of gelatin contained can help the growth of cartilage.

But scientifically speaking, shark fin has little nutritional value and, in fact, it may even be harmful to health over the long term. The methods used to prepare shark fin soup reduce the water content of the fin, which concentrates numerous chemical impurities. Shark fins studied at the University of Hong Kong contained 5.84 parts per million (ppm) of mercury, compared to a maximum permitted level of 0.5 ppm. The high presence of mercury was confirmed in independent tests conducted by two state-related labs in Thailand, and the findings are also reflected in US, Australian, and New Zealand governmental reports. In plain English, this means that eating shark fins could render men sterile due to the high mercury content.

Sharks' fins is derived from fins cut from living sharks. This process is called finning. Shark fins can fetch a price up to $700 per Kg. That is 70 times the value of a kilo of tuna. Because shark meat is worth very little, the finless and often still-living sharks are thrown back into the sea to make room on board the ship for more of the valuable fins. When they're thrown back into the ocean the sharks either bleed to death, or they drown, because sharks can't swim without fins, and they need to go forward to get oxygen. Divers have discovered hundreds of dead finned sharks at the bottom of the ocean in huge shark graveyards. It is estimated that 100 million sharks are slaughtered annually for their fins, at a rate of over 270,000 per day.

Yearly, they are more people died from getting hit by lightning or died from bee stings than of being eaten by a shark. Sharks are victims of misperception and media hype. There are only 5 to 15 shark-attack fatalities around the world. So, who is more scary? You decide.

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