In an ideal world

Anna, I agree with you in an ideal world. Unfortunately this is not the case. The anger though should be directed at the few fishermen who have spoiled it for the many legitimate celebrants. The fishermen are so efficient and ruthless that they have driven the shark species to the brink of extinction. It bothers me that this is seen as a racial issue and it may be for a few people. However the bulk of the shark supporters I feel have a legitimate concern for the continuation of the species at the core of their beliefs. If it were possible to control the import of fins only to countries that do not allow finning and if it were possible to ensure that fins from the most critically endangered species were protected, then I think a ban is not necessary.

Social change needs to start at the municipal level where well intentioned individuals with good ideas can have the most influence. I applaud your strength when you refuse to eat shark fin soup and challenge you to use your influence so that an outright ban is not necessary.

False Comparison?

I don't think the comparison to factory farming is relevant. There's no danger of factory chickens or cows going extinct. Their slaughter doesn't impact the ecological balance isn the same way as removing top-tier predators from the food chain, and for better or worse, we (as a society) use the whole animal where we can.

I'd also be interested to know more about these illegal foie-gras restaurants in Chicago. When the author says 'explosion' I smell hyperbole. What are the numbers on this? Did more/the same/less foie gras actually get consumed and why was the ban repealed? If it was simply because the regular restaurants complained about an unfair playing field I'm not sure the argument holds up.

Factory chickens and cows may

Factory chickens and cows may not go extinct, but the damage they cause to humanity, may be the causes, at least for a good part, for the daily growing cancer, diabetics etc. epidemics, we never had before those criminal rackets were forced on us .

As organic beef and chicken growers we can't even eat those garbage meats and eggs without becoming sick.

Ed Deak.

Refreshing...!

In an MSM publication such as The Tyee it is especially nice to hear from a writer who recognises that simply using the government club to ban anything deemed "offensive" is no answer!

Opinion Why We Shouldn't Ban Shark Fin

Please recognize it is in our BC Canadian culture to pass laws limiting the food and celebrations that we conduct. You might want to talk to our BC indigenous people about their pot-latch and the racist laws passed to prohibit them. Welcome to the neighborhood where equitable treatment is the experience.

Hah!

Somebody is really trying to redefine the word "racist". At the same time, I think, they are redefining the word 'stupid' so that their ideas may fit into that category.

sharks should come first

Any steps taken to help these species which are being obliterated for the most despicable of reasons should be carried out. Hauling out the race card and a comparison to factory farming is disingenuous at best. And if you want to maintain any credibility at all, never quote a moron like Rob "no one tells me what to eat" Ford. It's obvious from his physical state that indeed, "no one tells him what to eat"! Maybe someone should.

Shark Fin Soup

I signed a petition to ban shark fin soup in Toronto and was thrilled when the council voted to do so. I look at the issue from the perspective of the shark. Apparently the common practice is to capture the shark, slice of the fin and then throw the shark back into the water to die. Do you think the shark cares about the origin or language or culture of the individuals who are butchering it? I don;t think so and I don't care either. I care about the suffering and loss of the hundreds of thousands of creatures merely to satisfy a questionable human appetite.

We simply cannot continue brutalizing the natural world the way we are now. We just can't. It is a sacred privilege to share this amazing planet with such an abundance of living diversity. As for this particular initiative, it probably started with a single individual with a strong emotional response to the practice. Change has to start somewhere. That's generally how it works.

Why we shouldn't ban shark finn?

We SHOULD ban shark finn sales because there are many people who don't care about wildlife and have the money to indulge in the world's worst abuses. City and state government has to be aware of the contents of fridges and kitchens of its residents because a whole species will become extinct without government action. Cruise competitions for newly weds, while nice, will not deter the bulk of the finn market. The greed of mankind is notorious, 100 million sharks are killed by people each year. I hope we can put a stop to it.

I would like to see a gradual phase out of the shark fin

The shark fin adds very little to the soup. The Mediterranean bouillabaisse uses the head, spine, skin and fins of vertebrate fishes to create an excellent stock. If restaurants would start enhancing the stock of shark fin soup, with vertebrate stock they would probably be delighted with the results. They would probably start replacing shark fin to the delight of their clients.

Ed Deak-

Diabetes is caused by increased levels of sugars in the blood, which is caused by the consumption of simple sugars and more complex carbohydrates.

Cancer is not caused by the consumption of the proteins and lipids that we find in meat.

Cancer is caused by the suspension of apoptosis which in turn is a side effect of insulin in the blood stream, which is caused by the consumption of simple sugars and more complex carbohydrates.

Apoptosis is the normal programed cell death of abnormal cells in body. When insulin is present in the blood stream apoptosis is suspended. Abnormal cells do not die. If insulin is present in the blood stream for prolonged periods of time, the abnormal cells may reproduce and become cancerous.

Shark Truth

Whether it's rhino, whale, shark or gorilla, saving an endangered species is more important than preserving culinary traditions.

Perhaps Anna Ling Kaye will find the message more acceptable when it comes from Shark Truth, an organization founded by members of the Vancouver Chinese community.
http://www.sharktruth.com/

Couples who pledge not to serve shark-fin soup at their wedding are entered into a contest for a free honeymoon trip. The latest winner writes:

"...when I first told my parents that we weren’t going to serve shark fin at our wedding banquet, they objected … then they hesitated … then we finally were able to convince them that this is the right thing to do for the planet. After we won the contest, my dad was bragging to all his friends about how proud he was of us for standing up for something we believe in. A few weeks later after our banquet in Vancouver, we held a banquet for 880 guests at Jason’s homecountry Malaysia and to our surprise, his parents were so motivated by what we did in Vancouver, they decided to deck out the entire banquet hall with shark conservation messages!"

oh jesus...

I don't allow any cultural practice to interfere with my protection of the environment - talk about sui generis rights!

Anna Ling Kaye is simply another hyperbolic uninformed 'noise' contributing nothing to the dialogue. Little do people like Kaye realize, but the impact of reducing the threshold of crying "racism" for cheap opportunity is to belittle the actual need for distinguishing racism. This tactic may serve the tea party and its rabid disciples well enough but it is easily exposed to anyone with an inclination of critical thought.

Custom reconciles people to any atrocity. Such practices should never be defended on the auspices of cultural appreciation. Note that Sharks contribute far more to this environment than the majority of people.

Ill.....I never said that

Ill.....I never said that cancers etc are caused by the meat, but by the chemicals etc. the animals and birds are filled with in the factory farms.

I've seen a video on the Knowledge Net many years ago showing little kids in , I believe in Costa Rica, of a 6 year old boy with pubic hair an breasts, little 3 or 4 year old girl also with pubic hair, menstruating, etc. Caused by factory chickens according to the doctors.

A good , now retired animal scientist friend at the Abbotsford lab, at was telling me that in the meat packing plants they dump 10,000 chickens into the same cooling tanks and by the time they come out, they all have salmonella. That's why people are warned to cook them and never use the same knives etc, they've used to cut them up when raw.

Our daughter detected some lumps in one of her breasts,in Vancouver, about 30 years ago and ran to the doctor. His first question was: Have you eaten a lot of chicken lately ?
Apparently hundreds, or thousands, of women came down with the same problem at the same time, caused by chicken imported from the US.

I worked on an agribiz farm just outside of Cambridge in England when I was young and know what goes on and that was long before the present feedlot crime wave, where animals are pumped full of all kinds of poisons to make them fat.

How is it that 50 years ago the cancer rate was about 2% and now 30-40 %? Never heard of breast cancer until about the 70s, now it is an epidemic.

The first time we've heard the word "leukemia", was in the early 50s , when Red Skelton brought his little boy to England
to show him the world before he died of the "rare cancer of the blood", nobody heard of before.

All the guys I worked with doing spraying and other chemical crimes against humanity, without protection, have died of cancers at a young age. I survived after having been paralyzed for months and now with a short colon.

All to produce "cheap food", but mostly profits for the corporate mafia, filling our hospitals and daily increasing health costs for illnesses we've never heard of before.

How is it that we, who are used to organic foods, can detect the chemicals on the junk greens we're forced to buy in the winter and it often ends up in the garbage?

Ed Deak.

As Chuck a says:

"In an ideal world".

But then, in an ideal world, nothing would be banned, and all things would be used in moderation. Until then, if the consumption (or neglect, as in habitat destruction) of something risks it's extinction, then it needs to be banned.

gavage-free (?) foie gras

Check out Eduardo Sousa and his prize-winning foie gras.

Even if I believe it, I wouldn't want any goose slaughtered so I could spread his liver on a crisp.

shark fin - marijuana

To equate the proposed prohibition of shark fin consumption to the prohibition of marijuana is stretching it.

For one thing the author states that there is little flavour or any culinary attribute however the effects of marijuana are easily experienced by users. The main reason it appears from the article is traditional and cultural rather than nutritional.

Bans on commercial killing of whales for food by most of the world's countries has had a positive conservation outcome even though a few countries continue to practice killing whales for food etc.

The other interesting note is the author's comment that a ban has already taken place in Toronto and wondering how a similar ban would have in Vancouver with its large population of Asians.

Well if Toronto is the example then a similar ban in Vancouver should not have receive much opposition given the Asian population in Metro Toronto is significantly larger than Metro Vancouver.

The leader of the shark ban initiative in Toronto was Claudia Li and one of the 3 Toronto councilors that initiated the city's motion to ban shark fin in Toronto was Kristyn Wong-Tam both are considered part of the Asian-Canadian community.

One has to wonder when the gathering of Swiftlet nests for "Birds Nest Soup". Nests are collected before eggs are hatched or before nestlings are able to fly.

But the rest of the world shouldn't be so smug about consuming animal parts etc. Foie Gras to factory farming of pigs and chickens should also be on the list of banned food.

Racism? I think not! Cruel and inhumane? Definitely!

Anyone who tries to link those who criticize the cutting off of shark fins and then throwing the doomed fish back into the ocean, as being racist is clutching at straws, and insulting our intelligence. This practise is revolting and sullies any culture that sanctions it. I also have no tolerance for a culture that cuts off rhino horns due to some ridiculous beliefs. Anna Ling Kaye - you and your culture should be ashamed of itself!

on fallacy

I hope that people recognize the inevitable defence of those advocating status quo: cows/pigs/chickens live in deplorable conditions so why ban shark fins? or, we all drive cars so why ban drilling/transporting oil?

This position presents a false choice. It is not an "all or nothing" premise. We do not stop seeking a cure for cancer because we can't possibly resolve all other ailments. We don't avoid replanting trees because we can't possibly replace 400 year old Firs. We don't continue smoking because we can't immediately improve our diet and fitness.

We address one item at a time in the hopes that our collective consciousness changes. Recycling a tin can won't change the world but it will demonstrate a commitment replicable by others. Rarely is anything grand achieved in one fell act but that doesn't mean that we are devoid of grand achievements.

Feel free to trot this out everytime you hear this chronic rebuttal. You'll hear it spewed constantly from those fearful of change.

what an awful hypocritical subhead! YOU ARE THE RACIST!

Amazing! A cultural practice that involves crulety, savagery and wanton death, but hey white guys you are being evil if you speak against it because non-whites do it, therefore it must be okay?

Uhmm what happened to editorial, common-sense standards in journalism and in particularly at The Tyee?

This has got to be one of the most offensively just plain wrong and demonstratbly stupid articles ever produced here.

The author should be ashamed to go out in public after having this printed.

What next, whitetriangles to be worn by non-asians so we can all know who the bad-thinking peopel are?

This has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with biological, born traits but the fact you would make it about that, wow stunned does not cover it.

The Tyee, this is a problem.

Another possible solution is to require fishers to

Another possible solution is to require fishers to transport the whole shark to the processing facility. Shark fins by themselves do not take up very much space on board. Requiring that the whole fish be retained for processing would make the shark fin fishery much less lucrative.

Ed Deak-

A normal healthy body has many - millions of compromised cells on a daily basis. It does not matter too much what the causes the cells to become compromised, as long as the healthy cells of the body can be detect and destroy the compromised cells.

An elegant process called apoptosis deals with toxic cells on both an cellular and an intracellular level.

When the apoptosis process is suspended, the toxic cells do not die. If these cells begin multiply into colonies of similar toxic cells, the neighboring cells will also be toxic and they will not be able to send the kill signals to the developing tumor. The tumor cells will no longer be able to tell that they are abnormal, and a cancer starts.

yes we should ban shark fin soup

three cheers for MP Fin Donnelly's efforts to ban this criminal practice of senselessly torturing animals. There is nothing racist about banning cruelty.

racist? really?

There is so much to criticise in this missive, one hardly knows where to begin.

Black Africans conduct the vast majority of elephant poaching for ivory; CITES therefore must be racist.

Indians conduct the vast majority of tiger poaching; CITES therefore must again be racist. Or perhaps since Chinese are about the only people stupid enough to believe tiger penis is an aphrodisiac, the racism is directed at them, not the Indians.

Bravo to Shark Truth, if sharks slept I'm sure they'd sleep sounder comforted knowing that with Shark Truth's current success, in about 77,000 years they will have prevented one year's shark harvest.

There's so much more, but it's just not worth the effort: the gap between reality and perception is too vast.

Who's excluding whom?

Hi! I largely agree with you on the value and efficacy of prohibition. I would always look for a more reasoned and intelligence-driven answer to problems.

It troubles me, however, when you say:

"If this condemnation of a minority cultural tradition is handed down by a government largely unrepresentative of that target culture, the legislation smacks of racial exclusion."

If people live in Canada permanently and have voting rights, the government of Canada, as well as the provincial legislature, represents them and thereby their culture, as it is included in the Canadian quilt of cultures. Surely you are not suggesting that in order to 'represent' a culture, one must have the right skin tone? that would put you on a par with some people I could name, whom I am sure you would not wish to be seen next to. Some of them are or were members of the National Alliance. I would think it is enough to be an elected guardian of law and order, where the culture in question is living and being sheltered. We all have to give up some of our cultural notions in the name of peaceful coexistence and the preservation of everyone's habitat. I cannot take rightful revenge according to my cultural tradition if someone steps me in the face, but must limit my retributive measures to sending of a runic curse. I can also not make blood sacrifice other than by being tattooed, thus sacrificing my own blood, which is why a lot of the followers of the Norse tradition are tattooed in the most interesting places.

Think about it. We are all in this together. And, I do get sleepless thinking of sharks with no fins left to float helplessly. I cannot think of a more disgusting example of human lack of honor and reverence! We can get so cheap and dirty it defies description.

Shark Fin vs. Asbestos

I find it quite ironic that the shark fin opinion piece is directly below the link to the asbestos article. Why should we ban asbestos as long as other countries are willing to use it (and put their populace at risk)? Maybe banning asbestos would be a slap in the face for the Quebecois!

Racism? Sharks have no nationality!

Someone is reaching too far here. The fact is that we kill 100 million sharks a year, mostly for the fins. Thaty needs to stop, regardless of who is eating the soup.

Campbell's was good enough for my great grandfather, so it is good enough for me. (That is a joke).

I am only surprised that no one has come up with a substitute for the gelatin from the shark fins yet. There is a fortune to be made, but I guess "Carp fin soup" wouldn't have the same kerb appeal, would it?

Shark Fins have a shelf life in the news

I agree with many other posters here that disagree with the notion we must not legislate against something because it could be perceived as being racist. I also take issue with the idea that we can't legislate against shark fin consumption because we are not also taking action against other environmental abuses. With that kind of thinking we could never act on any issue because someone would point out other lapses. While there is likely some justification in Kaye's contention that the politicians are moving against shark fin because it risks relatively few votes it is also the case that in many political races a few votes are all that stands between winning and losing.
My biggest objection is the idea that boycotting and willing avoidance of shark fin consumption will be sufficient. For the past year or so the plight of sharks has received a lot of attention (relatively) in the media. This will not last. It will slip down the barometer or newsworthiness and many people, and many restaurants, will let their aversion to shark fin soup slip as well. Some won't know about it, some won't care about sharks, some will know and will care more about profits than anything else. Yes, legislation is clumsy, but I think most people will admit shark fin soup is not a good or necessary thing. For most of the rest who never consume it the ban will make no difference.
As for Mayor Ford of Toronto voting against the ban, I find little out of his mouth to be much more thoughtful or progressive than the ideas of 17th century slave traders. I mean they didn't tell other people they had to keep slaves so who were we to tell them they could not?

roady

Entirely laudable - except for those pesky elephant carcasses laying about (minus the tusks)......

Bright idea: put asbestos in the shark fin soup

Gadrogeek made the connection; it sounds like a good one to me. Close the loop etc.

yep.

Did an editor actually read this before it was put up?

This article is so far off the usual lovely stuff we get from The Tyee, that you just have to wonder...

Keystone Species

Although touched on briefly in a few comments the real issue with the global shark fin trade is the damaging effects human demand has on this K selected species. Most shark species just can't cope. As previously mentioned, most shark species are apex predators and as such their extripation would yield changes to ocean ecosystems we can hardly begin to predict. Animal ethics and racism are important issues but all that means squat if we irreversibly alter our world.