Here’s a great campaign that has just started in Vancouver to help positively change the Chinese wedding tradition of serving shark fin soup. It’s been well documented for years now that we’re decimating the world’s shark populations mostly for their fins. It is estimated that 100 million sharks are killed for their fins annually. Experts now expect most species of sharks to be lost due to unsustainable longlining. Shark protection isn’t just about protecting the multitude of sharks species, but about protecting the oceans that ultimately sustain us. Most of us know that apex predators are essential to any healthy ecosystem. They protect against overpopulation of other species that would destroy the delicate balance needed to sustain that system.
These folks are showing how to really make changes. It’s the easiest thing in the world to point fingers and cast blame on any culture’s traditions, but doing that will only cause hard feelings, defensiveness and a complete collapse of dialogue. There’s not much hope of positive change after that. They also make a good point by saying that just banning the import of shark fins is not the way to go about this sensitive issue. The demand will still be there and will create a large black market economy. Education and, in this case, positively targeting young couples who are getting married is the perfect starting point for starting a new tradition.
Read the article and see the CBC press coverage here: http://osocio.org/message/starting_a_new_tradition/