Hard to believe the reason they take the fins is for a soup that they put chicken stock in and that it's only used for the texture! So frustrating/disappointing to hear.
Jaws was probably the worst PR ever for an animal in recent history. I did swim with great whites off the coast of South Africa once and I was surprised when they didn't give a shit about me and they were just doing their own thing. Reading your newsletter has taught me how important they are. Thank you for your work Amie.
Imagine surviving SIX mass extinction events… Only to bump into us. 😬 “…A 71% decline in shark populations in the last 50 years”, my goodness. This makes me think of that meme of a great white shark beside a scuba diver, captioned “A photograph of one of the most dangerous animals on earth. Beside it, a great white swims peacefully.”
While I knew a little about the practice of finning, the scale and cruelty of it was new to me. We humans have an insidious tendency to disregard the consequences of our actions. Will governments step forward on this? I want to believe so…
Thank you for highlighting this abhorrent trade. It seems as though so many humans have totally lost connection with the land they live on, and have no regard at all for what they cannot see below the waters surface.
Exactly that - out of sight, out of mind. I really think the media has a lot to answer for, even 'conservation' documentaries portray them as villains. It doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of care.
Yes, we have been fed a diet of being scared by sharks rather than curious! And yet we watch a documentary about a lion bringing down a zebra and still love the lion! Hypocrisy - I am fascinated by both, and the zebra too!! Being human seems to many to be a licence to ignorance - imagine if we used our intelligence to save the planet rather than get rich or despoil it, just what we could achieve!
Very true! The ocean needs apex predators, especially ones as efficient as sharks. I quite like thresher sharks and learnt about dusky sharks recently. Which is your favourite?
The movie Jaws, and all the copycats that came after did much to foster fear of sharks. Like most creatures of the wild they should be looked at with caution, but not feared. I’ve done a lot of diving around sharks and have never been attacked. Sometimes they approach but you just need to stay alert and not show fear. I’m not sure how you deal with this shark fin fixation.
Hard to believe the reason they take the fins is for a soup that they put chicken stock in and that it's only used for the texture! So frustrating/disappointing to hear.
Jaws was probably the worst PR ever for an animal in recent history. I did swim with great whites off the coast of South Africa once and I was surprised when they didn't give a shit about me and they were just doing their own thing. Reading your newsletter has taught me how important they are. Thank you for your work Amie.
Imagine surviving SIX mass extinction events… Only to bump into us. 😬 “…A 71% decline in shark populations in the last 50 years”, my goodness. This makes me think of that meme of a great white shark beside a scuba diver, captioned “A photograph of one of the most dangerous animals on earth. Beside it, a great white swims peacefully.”
I know the meme, and it really says it all 😔
While I knew a little about the practice of finning, the scale and cruelty of it was new to me. We humans have an insidious tendency to disregard the consequences of our actions. Will governments step forward on this? I want to believe so…
Thank you for highlighting this abhorrent trade. It seems as though so many humans have totally lost connection with the land they live on, and have no regard at all for what they cannot see below the waters surface.
Exactly that - out of sight, out of mind. I really think the media has a lot to answer for, even 'conservation' documentaries portray them as villains. It doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of care.
Yes, we have been fed a diet of being scared by sharks rather than curious! And yet we watch a documentary about a lion bringing down a zebra and still love the lion! Hypocrisy - I am fascinated by both, and the zebra too!! Being human seems to many to be a licence to ignorance - imagine if we used our intelligence to save the planet rather than get rich or despoil it, just what we could achieve!
If our beautiful creature dies, the whole ecosystem will crash. Gosh, I love sharks! I even drew one today. ☺️
May I ask, do you have a favorite shark?
Very true! The ocean needs apex predators, especially ones as efficient as sharks. I quite like thresher sharks and learnt about dusky sharks recently. Which is your favourite?
Mine is Tiger Sharks, not sure why, but its just something with them that is interesting.
The movie Jaws, and all the copycats that came after did much to foster fear of sharks. Like most creatures of the wild they should be looked at with caution, but not feared. I’ve done a lot of diving around sharks and have never been attacked. Sometimes they approach but you just need to stay alert and not show fear. I’m not sure how you deal with this shark fin fixation.