HELP SHARK!!

Yes, I am a chef and love to cook; One of my greatest passions for sure! Not very often, but just every so often, chefs run into moral dilemmas like the recent issue of foie gras which prompted Wolfgan Puck and many other notable chefs to stop utilizing the fattened duck or goose liver in their dining establishments. Many years ago, there was the outcry about Chilean Sea Bass (also known as Patagonian Toothfish because who would buy that?) and chefs around the world were bringing this ugly white fish to the brink of extinction. We still hear about this along with dolphin safe tuna, rock fish, swordfish, and many other things.

Now there is the issue of sharks. I am not talking about killing sharks for consumption of their flesh, but just for their fins, a cruel process called "finning" in which the fins are cut from the live shark and the body is discarded, still alive, and thrown back into the ocean to die. The people and groups are doing the finning because the fins bring in excess of $300 a pound; no need to bother with processing the rest of the shark because that would kill profits with extra labor and storage space. Easy money I guess and everything boils down to the mighty dollar. If anyone caught "Shark Week" on Discovery Channel this past week, you would of seen a heartbreaking example of finning. The Sharkman episode was quite inspirational.

All of this is for soup of course; shark fin soup. This has been a delicacy for hundreds of years in the Asian regions of the world and demand is driving the finning of sharks, as one cup of this elixir can cost $100 or more. By cutting the demand for shark fin soup, eliminates the finning of sharks, thus sparing millions of sharks from this butchery, and also helping to save the world’s oceans and eco systems.

Simple concept I guess? I am but one chef, one person, and but only voice a small opinion on a little blog. Please understand, I am not a card carrying member of PETA (I often refer to as People Eating Tasty Animals) and never will be, but this is an issue which can not be ignored! I call upon the International leaders of the world, and especially the leaders of Japan, United States, Britain, Canada, and China to ban shark fin soup and place a moratorium on shark finning immediately.

I am but one chef, one person, but we need to something!

NO SOUP FOR YOU!