Corpusfishing.com

[bike n fish]

I usually don't get too stirred up when I view overfishing reports, but this just made me really pissed!

Below link shows over 10,000 shark fins being dried in the sun on an industrial rooftop in China. Truly unacceptable, but they will continue to get away with it.

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/50552/alarming+sight+thousands+of+shark+fins+drying+on+hong+kong+rooftop/

[hickroots07]

Dude that makes me sick.... what a waste....
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Great captains, the stuff of legend, are made not by what they have caught, but by what they have given back.

[lifeaquatic]

very disturbing pictures

[Jellyfish]

It's a wonder the wildlife resources that are targeted for this kind of waste have not become extinct. But it probably won't be long.
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E Pluribus Unum

[MakoJJ]

This is terrible
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JJ

[want2fish]

SICKENING

[shallowsport]

The Japanese have been allowed to do whatever they want in the fishing industry, and most other industries, without penalty. They care little about public opinion. For them, and most, it's all about the money.

[Jeffro3967]

The link says the pictures are from Hong Kong, China. I have always heard that Japan does this, but I didn't realize China is doing it as well. Truly sad pictures.

[gonefishing]

Arm the Bob Barker and the Sea Shepard with torpedoes. Problem solved.

[FishLady]

It is a shame that these humans can't act humane! Same as someone cutting off your arms and throwing you in the water... no survival that way! It's a shame these people don't have a brain or conscience! Of course, they probably think it is just a shark and it doesn't feel pain or have any feelings.
I've probably said too much already......
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FishLady

[BobBobber]

As disgusting as it is, in a communist country and in many others they don't play by the same standards and rules that we do.

I knew some commercial fishermen from the Pacific Northwest. Seasons for salmon, halibut, and Pollock are limited and strictly regulated in US waters. Our boats cannot catch something beyond the 3-mile limit and return to a US harbor after the season closes.

However, Chinese and Russian ships, primarily, can catch all they want offshore, because they do not have to follow US regulations. Many of those fish are stocked, monitored, etc., by US fisheries employees But in large part for the benefit of countries other than our own.

For example, many years ago, we used to love Alaskan Pollock from Walmart. But suddenly what we bought was mushy in texture.

Closer look at the package label stated it was distributed from Rhode Island (RI).

That seemed strange to get Alaskan fish from RI, so I called the distributor. I learned the Pollock was shipped from China to RI. Seems that Chinese ships netted the fish, gutted them (maybe), flash froze, and got it back to China. Once there, it was thawed out, filets made, packaged and refrozen. Then shipped to Rhode Island where it was trucked to Walmarts around the USA.

I told the person I spoke with that I now understood why the fish was mushy, since it had been thawed and refrozen, at least once, maybe more.

I soon learned that Walmart buys tons of those fish. Therefore, I was told the problem I called about did not exist. Whenever I shop at grocery stores, I would tell people at the fish freezers and in line at the cash register to read the label. The Alaskan fish they were about to purchase came from China.

Well, most people reacted to me like I didn't know what the hell I was taking about or took a step back while they looked for their pepper spray. But when they looked at the label and saw China on it, it made no difference. They bought it.

Same situation exists today, as reported in another thread by another member, H-E-B sells shrimp from Indonesia, much cheaper than USA Gulf shrimp. FYI, there was a documentary program we saw a few years ago, where the Asian natives we processing shrimp on wood tables, in weather hot enough to wear light summer clothes, and they were standing barefooted in mud. Our FDA probably never inspected that!

Therein lies another problem for us in the US. There might not be any FDA inspections, adhering to FDA standards, cleanliness, refrigeration, etc. That gives those fishmongers a big cost difference, so we cannot compete.

Shark fins? Hey, I never ate those. But I have some Chinese friends who will pay dearly for disgusting stuff they consider delicacies. Cooked chicken feet is another such delicacy. Hey, I know where those chicken feet walked in before; I'll never eat them.

There have been reported cases of bears that had only their feet and claws chopped off. Dead rhinos without horns. The lists are endless.

But again, what we consider illegal, disgusting and even morally wrong is not see that way by other cultures that do live by our rules.

Now, if we could get those people to consume their wildlife, and leave ours alone, that might be more tolerable.

Sorry to be so long winded with this post, but as you can probably see, this kind of thing lights my fire!

[BobBobber]

[OneMoreCast88]

Hello,

After seeing this post, and this link on other websites I decided to do some research and ask around. I am currently living on that side of the globe (Yes I still check corpusfishing as much as possible!)

Living here I haven't seen or been offered this shark fin soup, so i decided to ask my local friends about it. The results are interesting, read further if your interested in a local report of this trade without the fluff the media uses.

So it turns out yes Chinese like shark fin soup and no its not illegal to hunt and kill sharks. The demand for this soup spikes around Chinese New Years (February) and it is one of many dishes to be served at family gatherings. The fins cost about 40 USD each and the soup's recipe calls for about 3 fins. It seems the elder generation has the taste for this soup and not the youth. The oldest in the family is the most important in Chinese culture so if that's what they want, that's what they get.



Some have speculated that the Chinese fisherman would catch the fins and just dump the carcass into the ocean to rot, I can assure everyone this is not the case. The Chinese are much like Native Americans when it comes to animals, they do not waste any part of the animal. Bob was correct saying the chicken foot is consumed in the many night markets around here, although its not viewed as a delicacy but just another part of the animal to eat.

So I hope I was able to shed some proper light on this issue. Some times a photo can say a 1000 words, in this case the words were not so clear.

Any other questions please ask, I've spent time here as well as Vietnam.

[ltorna1]

Onemorecast88, thanks for your local insight. I like getting in inside persective on things like this.

Sadly, the practice if dumping fin-less carcasses is more widespread than you think, not only in southeast Asia but also in Central and South American (including countries were finning is outlawed). While culinary culture in many southeast asian countries (as you said, especially china) is to use every part of the animal and to waste little, the economics usually takes over on the boat before the ship hits harbor, and it is simply more efficient to fill your hold with a few thousand fins than a few hundred whole shark carcasses. Are there exceptions? Oh most certainly, and many of those exceptions may be in China. But it does happen, and it needs to stop.
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[Central Scrutinizer]

Surprisingly, nobody has made the comment that first popped into my head when I saw the pictures.

"Can you imagine how bad it must smell on that rooftop"....

Waste, for sure. But sharks tend to reek when they are dead. Even if it was just the fins, I bet it would make a skunk gag.