Shark Finning Should Be Banned Worldwide!

 

A top Sydney chef says shark fin soup should be banned from Australian restaurants because the demand for the delicacy is driving sharks to extinction.

Dank Street Depot’s Jared Ingersoll said serving shark fin dishes in Australia is promoting an unsustainable industry.

“Stocks of shark and shark fin are depleting and unless we take a stand and say no to this product it’s going to run out,” he said.

Mr Ingersoll said as well as the restaurant ban, the importation of the shark fins from other countries should be stopped.

“Buying it in from other countries, we’re actually not solving the problems because we’re shifting the problem to someone else’s front door,” he said.

Shark finning — the brutal but lucrative practice of cutting fins off live sharks and throwing them back into the ocean to slowly drown — is banned in Australia.

But Australia still imports 10,000kg of dried shark fins every year from countries that have not banned finning, including China and The Philippines, which equates to an estimated 26,000 sharks.

Ninemsn has found that dried sharks fins are widely available in Sydney’s Chinatown with price tags up to $1400 per kilogram and $158 a bowl of shark fin soup.

The dish is a symbol of wealth in Asian culture, but recently it has also appeared on western-style menus, including at Quay restaurant in Sydney.

Glenn Sant, from Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network TRAFFIC, said the global trade in shark fins was a major concern.

“Its not identified at all when it appears in a ship or through markets whether it’s from a sustainable source or a legal source,” he said.

Mr Sant said Australia had come a long way to protecting sharks but still played a significant role in the shark fishing industry — catching up to 12,000 tonnes per year.

He said the government needed to do more to demonstrate that they are managing in a sustainable way.

Chef Neil Perry, who heads Rockpool restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, will only only serve seafood that is harvested sustainably.

“We know where it comes from, we know the fishermen and we know the fishing methodology,” Mr Perry said.

But he said the real issue was how the industry is managed.

“We should probably be able to have shark fin at some stage if the inhumanity of finning is stopped, the shark is being harvested from a sustainable biomass and all of the shark is being used.”

“It’s not a matter of getting banners and marching outside Chinese restaurants in Chinatown — it’s really a matter of having a dialogue at [a global] government level.”

Documentary film SharkWater, released in Australian cinemas this month, has ignited controversy over shark finning with it’s portrayal of cracking the black market fin trade in Costa Rica.

Director Rob Stewart, also a marine biologist, said shark populations have dropped 90 percent in the last 30 years because of the growing demand for shark fin soup in Asia.

“We’re not living in a sustainable relationship with the world that allows us to survive on land and we need to turn that around really quickly,” he told ninemsn.

Last month, the Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, placed an export ban on a fishery in northern Western Australia because of an alarming decline in one shark species.

“The rate of decline in the sandbar shark was considered so severe that shark fishing had to be stopped in the area,” a WA Fisheries Department spokesman said.

Story by Josephine Asher, ninemsn

Comment by Tony Inman at Planet Inn – As a keen scuba diver, I am absolutely an advocate of the importance of preserving our marine eco-systems around the World. I highly recommend the film ‘Sharkwater’, which explains the bad rep that sharks have received from Hollwood movies such as ‘Jaws’.

Sharks kill only about 5 people a year in the whole world, whereas we kill around 50 million of them. They kill usually only because they mistake us for something else that they would usually eat, such as a seal or a turtle, whereas in many cases humans kill sharks for their fins, often throwing them back in the water still alive, and leaving them to die a cruel and painful death.

I have personally dived up close to many sharks, of which there are hundreds of species, a lot of which are quite harmless to humans.

The incidents of shark attacks really come down to being very unlucky – “wrong place, wrong time”. Stats show that more people are killed by coconuts falling on their heads or being struck by lightning. More people die from defective electric toasters than from shark attacks, yet you don’t often find people fearing for their life as they avoid the kitchen bench!

If you are healthy and can pluck up the courage, I highly recommend learning to scuba dive. Failing that. have a go at snorkelling. If that’s still not your cup of tea, then take a tour in a glass bottom boat or visit AQWA, our WA aquarium, where you can watch sharks through the safety of a window.

All of these activities can be organised for you by our staff at Planet Inn.

Education is the key to understanding that sharks have an important place in our world and that they actually fulfill a vital role in maintaining the good health of the oceans and ultimately, of  our Planet Earth.

Catching Crayfish

Although I have been scuba diving for over three years now and have qualified to the level of PADI Recue Diver, I have only recently experienced the joy of diving for crayfish.
Some of my friends have been engaging in this ‘cat and mouse’ game for a while now, while I have always preferred to leave marine life undisturbed, and instead take copious amounts of photographs with which I can bore anyone willing to look at them for hours on end!
Recently though, I took the plunge (excuse the pun) at Rottnest Island and in the company of the infamous “Welshie” and my girlfriend Jo, we went hunting for our dinner.
The event was a Dive Club trip organized by Neil Clarke at Perth Dive Locker and he provided the loops. I provided the venue at Planet Inn and our versatile Chef, Mel was primed ready to cook up a feast.
I have to report that it is amazingly difficult! The little rock lobsters just don’t want to be caught and will not co-operate very much.
They hide under ledges and they always have an escape route planned. When you see their antennae poking out, you have to dive down close and poke your head under the ledge. Then you ever so carefully slide a long rod past the cray as he appears to be weighing you up. On the end of your rod is a spring loaded loop which you open up so that it’s larger than him.
If you are lucky, as you bring the loop forwards towards his tail, he will panic and walk backwards into your loop which you quickly close around him. It may sound easy enough but these things are lightning fast and very adept at sidestepping the loop.

Out of about four that I tried to catch, I succeeded only once – on the first attempt, and what a thrilling moment that was.
Between us we caught five crays that day, though one was deemed to be undersize and was thrown back. By the way, you need a “Rock Lobster Licence” from the Fisheries Department and there are stringent rules so as to protect the species from over-fishing.
I can highly recommend them cooked with garlic and lemon! Ask Mel for the special recipe.
 If you want to have a go at cray diving, just experience a trial dive or actually complete a “Learn to Dive” Course, please contact our staff at Planet Inn who will help you with all the necessary information and book it for you.
Tonaldo the “Inn Man”
23rd March, 2009