Sharks have had a pretty rough time since humans hit the scene, to say the least. We've done little more than vilify and slaughter them, and in return, they get to be treated as a luxury... food source.

1/3rd of all shark species are now at risk of extinction, with 100 million being killed annually, with 150 countries involved. I wonder why...

_{That's a lot of fins...}

Soup

Yes, for the longest of time, Shark fin soup has been a delicacy much sought after by Asians looking to appear cool and wealthy in front of more people who also want to appear cool and wealthy. The best way to do that, apparently, is by catching shark, cutting off their fins and then dumping the body back into the ocean to drown.

And this is no rarity, as the above photo demonstrates. All over Asia from Taiwan to Hong Kong, Vietnam and of course, China, the oceans are stripped clean of gracious predators minding their own business.

Ok, bias aside, why do so many people eat shark fins? Why not shark eyes or shark stomach?

Long, long ago

Shark fin soup has been traced back to the Chinese Song Dynasty (around AD968), where it was of course a highly prized food, purely on the basis of its unusual nature. Popularity boomed in the 15th century during the Ming Dynasty after being imported from Africa, and it has been a stable snob-diet ever since.

Popularity peaked around the 2000's, as more and more people became aware of its fabulous, miraculous healing properties. Oh, did that surprise you? Let me show you what eating shark fin soup can do for your health:

<sub>* Increase sexual potency
* Improve skin quality
* Increasing Qi (lol)
* Prevents heart disease
* Lowers cholesterol
* Improves appetite
* Nourishes the blood
* Beneficial to Kidneys, lungs, bones and more
* General rejuvination
* Prevents cancer</sub>

And presumably a lot more, depending on what Traditional Chinese Doctor you visit.

So, is there any truth to this? The answer might surprise you:

No

There is no evidence whatsoever that shark fin does anything of the sort, but what I find most interesting is how much damage it can actually do.

Sharks are Deadly

Biomagnification is the process of increasing the concentration of a biological substances. When these substances are toxic, it can be a problem. Marine animals have a habit of absorbing some toxic substances without actually excreting it out again. You are what you eat, and all that.

As sharks eat toxified fish that ate toxified smaller fish, it all bioaccumulates in their body. Given that they are the top predator and live for around 50 years, that's a lot of time to accumulate bad stuff, and in fact sharks have some of the highest levels of mercury of all; more than marlin and tuna.

The particular form of heavy metal, methylmercury, is a very dangerous neurotoxin and numerous organizations suggest avoiding shark as a food at all costs, especially pregnant women.

Of the fins tested in Hong Kong, 25% of them had deadly amounts of methylmercury, posing significant danger to children above all.

One study found that 79% of shark fins contained BMAA, a deadly neurotoxin linked with Alzheimer's, dementia and other brain-death conditions.

So sharks huh? They really are deadly, on so many levels.

Any alternatives?

Well, if we can't safely eat shark fins, what better way than to substitute it with counterfeit shark fins? Yes indeed, this is a thriving business model.

A Chinese report found fake shark fins being served across Beijing, Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang, and were likely poisonous, linked to diseases of lungs and other organs! Naturally.

_{It's real, honest}

This of course depends on who makes it, but counterfeit food is obviously unregulated and the creators are notoriously free of ethics in China, with an entire wikipedia page dedicated to a seemingly endless list of deaths and poisonings of children via sewage, deadly chemicals and pesticides.

So it may come as no surprise that estimates show that 40% of shark fins consumed in China are in fact fake. But hey, less sharks killed!

Is anything being done about this?

Surprisingly, yes! In fact, this is where the good news comes in.

China has made numerous steps to cut the sale of Shark Fin Soup (that sells for $50 a pop), first by banning it at official government gatherings and other large banquets such as weddings (A wedding without shark fin would cause a loss of face, culturally). Then they actually did something by launching awareness campaigns, informing people that much of it is fake, mercury poisoning is rife and even getting Yao Ming (Very famous basketball player) to do a campaign enlightening citizens on how needlessly brutal the whole process is.

The results? Sales have dropped 70% by 2013, and 85% by 2014. This naturally caused the price of shark fin to plummet, making the business far less viable for mass production. In fact, this campaign was so successful that any recent news regarding shark fins has turned its head towards the USA, which has yet to ban the trade as the EU has. No, they simply regulate it so you have to use all of the shark.

But the story doesn't end there

In fact it's just beginning. Although such a sharp decline occurred thanks to China's campaigns and clamping down on corruption, those numbers stopped declining from about 2014, and remains the same to this day.

About 5,500+ tons of shark fins are still being traded thanks to various loopholes in shipping regulations. These loop holes can be as cheap as labelling things 'dog fish fin', since dog fish are a type of shark, but called a fish so it's ok.

But most of it isn't actually going to mainland China anymore. in fact, 50% of the 70 million tons of annual shark fin sold is going to Hong Kong, where they apparently don't care about the fate of sharks, and still 1/3rd of those are once again from threatened species.

They also label products in Spanish, knowing it isn't going to a spanish speaking country, which is apparently enough to get through.

Now, it's a fight to tighten regulation policies with better screening and training, but this still may not be enough. Total bans can be dangerous and poses risks of driving prices up again to levels of, say, Rhino Horn, making fisheries more willing to take the risk for a hefty profit.

Additionally, once a shark is chopped up, it's almost impossible to tell the difference between species, so banning the sales of endangered species is nigh on impossible to enforce, despite actual DNA tests being implemented on imported shark products.

There has to be some kind of balance, a game of whack-a-mole which is sensitive and complex, and we won't hear the end of it in the near future. A good start would be educating the kids. Hey, you can start with this!

_{... maybe not}

By the way, it doesn't even taste of anything. That's why it's so easy to fake!

Sigh!

Image Sources: Mercury chart (Everything else CC0 Licensed)

References: _{BMAA | Methylmercury | Shark Fin Regulation Study | 1/3rd endangered in Hong Kong | Hong Kong still selling}