Shark Fins

Are our palates more important than ethics? Is driving a species towards extinction not of ethical concern?

People's love for shark fins continues to bewilder me. I admit that the shark fin soup could be quite delicious. The texture of shark fins is not easily replaced by synthetic food. But knowing that sharks are being driven to extinction by "my people", I've long stopped consuming it. Putting aside the facts that shark fishing is an inhumane and wasteful practice, shark products are high in mercury, shark fins have no nutritional value but mercury, and that I'm a diver, the mere thought of something as insignificant as our palates or vanity driving more than one species of sharks to extinction is powerful enough for me to take my pledge to abstain from having shark fins.

Is it how our species sees ourselves as the almighty inhabitant of this planet that we care not about other species's right to survive? Is altruism absolute nonsense unheard of by urban dwellers except for the "eccentric" few? Every tiny little step that we take individually will collectively contribute to a giant leap.

And please don't give me that but-it's-already-there-whether-or-not-I-consume-it crap. It's all about demand and supply.

The other day I ordered a tuna sushi. That piece of tuna was so fresh and delicious that I thought to myself, holy crap, I never knew tuna could be this tasty. Then I read the menu again. Uh oh. I think that was a piece of blue fin tuna that I just had. Now I understand why people are so crazy about blue fin tuna. But will I continue to pursue this fish to satisfy my palates? Definitely not. I felt petty bad the rest of the day that I accidentally ate blue fin tuna and having eaten at a restaurant that served it. There are much more important things in life and morals than mere oral sensory satisfaction.