War on Sharks

Miami Herald ^ | 3 Aug 2018 | SARAH BLASKEY

[DUMBGRUNT]

An Ecuadorian Navy patrol vessel, guided by advanced radar and a small plane, bore down on a ship the length of a football field making a beeline across the Galápagos Marine Reserve — probably the most fiercely protected waters in the world. Filling the freighter’s freezers: 150 tons of dead sharks, most of them endangered and illegal to sell.

Only small pieces off those 6,000 carcasses were actually of much value. The fins.

Shark fins are a delicacy in China, the feature ingredient in an expensive soup served at banquets and fancy restaurants. At peak, dried fins have sold for more per pound than heroin. That price, coupled with high demand from a booming Chinese economy, has created a brutally efficient industry capable of strip-mining sharks from the sea.

[DUMBGRUNT]

I'm with Bob (Barker) and his nutty buddies at Sea Shepherd on this one. Two reasons: Bob put that Gilmore clown in his place, and they kill them just for the fin.

The whale eaters eat much of the muscle tissue???

[moovova]

After boarding a shark harvesting ship, the authorities should maneuver the ship into shark infested waters...and make the crew walk the plank. This krap would stop pretty quick.

[reed13k]

Yes for whale they eat most of the tissue. It’s a fatty, beefy texture to the sight, but less tough to the jaw.

Most of a shark is cartilage, bone, and organ. There isn’t really a lot of edible meat.

[hanamizu]

There isn’t really a lot of edible meat.

---

I was told that a lot of what was sold as swordfish was, in fact, shark. This was a while back when things weren’t looked at so closely. I know I liked ‘swordfish steaks’.

[VaeVictis]

“Most of a shark is cartilage, bone, and organ”

I think you mean cartilage and connective tissue? Sharks don’t have bones...

Secondly, sharks do have plenty of meat on them. The meat is also more like Steak than Fish. The main problem with keeping their meat is they have to be cleaned alive. Like Crabs, if you clean a shark after it dies, it tends to ruin the meat. That’s why most fisherman, like me, tend to throw those guys back.

[Peeps47]

I watched a show on tv that showed this being done off the coast of Mexico. They hauled the shark up, chopped off the fins and threw the shark back into the ocean. It seemed like such a waste to me. The fishermen were doing it to sell to people who eat shark fin soup.

[T-Bone Texan]

I found thresher shark to be very tasty. As a teen I was a prep cook in a seafood restaurant and I cut up many threshers in my day.

Not sure if any other shark is really edible.

On a side note, sharks are very cartilinagous (sp?). They have a lot of cartilage, by dint of them not really having a lot of bones. I have crummy discs in my back and take shark cartilage pills every day to help plump up my discs.

Combined with lots of water it works. Alone it does not work.

[moovova]

That’s just cruelty. Sad.

[PIF]

The whale eaters eat much of the muscle tissue blubber.

[Jack Hammer]

Personally, I’m firmly against killing sea creatures that are crazy quick; have several rows of massive, razor-sharp teeth; and attack human beings without warning.

[DUMBGRUNT]

...creatures that are crazy quick; have several rows of massive, razor-sharp teeth; and attack human beings without warning.

You know Chuck’s former wife too?
I once made the mistake of calling the old number...

[Peeps47]

I usually don’t feel bad for sharks, snakes and fish but I didn’t like watching what they were doing. Throwing the live sharks back into the ocean to die was cruel. The sharks would spiral down towards the bottom while trying to swim. It was such a waste.