Shark's fins may actually be harmful

Letter from Lee Shyh Yao, Today Online 29 Jan 10;

During the Chinese New Year season, Chinese restaurants heavily promote their shark's fin menu.

As many might know, Asian fleets would go out to sea and fin the sharks alive, then throw them back into the ocean to bleed to death. The dying sharks could sit on the sea bed for days, sometimes up to several weeks before they finally die.

Long-lining, a fishing method often used to capture sharks, uses hundreds to thousands of baited hooks attached to each fishing line going up to 50 miles into the sea. This results in unwanted "by-catches", often entangling and killing other marine creatures including dolphins, seals, whales, turtles, and other fishes.

For every 10 pounds of fish killed, approximately 100 pounds of marine life are thrown away. In addition, edible fins only make up approximately 2 per cent of a shark's total weight. We are taking the life of one shark, possibly endangered, plus all others that were killed "by accident", for the sake of this.

Incredulous wastage of marine life aside, we are neglecting the fact that several species of sharks are endangered. Yet there's no proper governance in place and we are free to trade their fins. Additionally, sharks being apex predators of the ocean, have the power to collapse the entire ocean's ecosystem with their decline. This is unlike the decline of any other species in the ocean which could cause devastating impacts, but chances of their collapsing the entire ecosystem is not as high as that of sharks'.

Reports by the US Food & Drug Administration also show that the mercury levels in sharks is one of the highest among marine fishes, at 0.988 PPM (mercury concentration). This means that sharks have mercury concentration that is 70 times higher than that of salmon, sardines, or oysters (Ref: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/Seafood/FoodbornePathogensContaminants/Methylmercury/ucm115644.htm ). Pregnant women and young children are strongly advised against consuming shark.

While lots of Singaporeans would lament that eating shark's fin is a tradition that's hard to change, I'd say, its time to start thinking and weighing the pros and cons. Let's also not forget that headhunting was a tradition too. So was cannibalism.

Shark's fins should be banned. Stop ordering shark's fins, and stop consuming them, even if it's been paid for by someone else. If you are still not persuaded not to eat shark's fins, eat, but hopefully with much guilt.