Shark finning

This is what I needed for an essay and I just expanded. I will have a works cited page.

Shark finning is a great epidemic in today's world. Everyone who thinks that sharks are big, mean, and vicious predators do not think that sharks should be alive. Some people say other wise. While doing research for this paper having to find the information for shark finning was deeply disturbing, no one really knows how cruel human beings can be too animals till they see it first hand. However one famous chief went to China to taste shark fin soup and find out how it was made, and how the sharks were treated and what the chief found was deeply disturbing. The chief who went and made this episode for what is believed to be food network was none other than Gordon Ramsey. Ramsey was highly disturbed when he found out that when fishermen catch sharks and fin them, they don't just take one fin they take all of the fins while the sharks are alive and then throw the sharks back into the water where they begin to sink to the bottom of the ocean. When the shark gets to the bottom of the ocean it either dies because it can't breathe, or it gets eaten by other fish such as other sharks.

Sharks have been killed for shark fin soup for many years in China, and recently it has grown and become a really big epidemic. The ocean is a careful balance of an ecosystem where the sharks are at the top of the food chain, so people believe. When it comes to the ecosystem sharks eat seals, seals eat sea urchins and other small fish, so when sharks are killed each year in high numbers then the ecosystem go out of balance and populations of other marine life go out of whack. There are approximately 100 million sharks killed each year by humans and that number only continues to grow each year. Recently seal populations have been really high, which is good for the sea urchins and other small fishes, but this also means that sharks are coming closer and closer to shore every day.

When these sharks come closer to shore where people are swimming then the shark bite rate goes up. People on surf boards, body boards, or flippers in the ocean look like seals or penguins to sharks and if their is poor visibility in the water then the chances of an attack just increases. This also escalates fear in humans for when they go into the water and this fear hasn't had good repercussions at all.

The repercussions that come with a human's great fear towards sharks come from the movie JAWS, where Peter Benchley tells a very eerie and gruesome story of a rogue shark. Benchley's story is actually based off of a popular rogue shark theory which was written back in 1916 after a series of shark attacks off of the New Jersey coast. Now when a person is bitten by a shark they are either fearful of them and want them to die, or the person who was bitten wants to help protect the species. There are about 143 different species of sharks in the world, and the ones that are caught and finned the most are becoming endangered. These sharks include great whites, hammerheads, silkies, threshers, porbeagles, and many more. 

When sharks are finned and thrown back into the ocean to die, the fishermen take the fins back to the buyer where the soup process begins. The shark's fins are soaked in hydrogen peroxide for a couple of days, then soaked in a beef broth, and steamed then they are added to a soup broth. The problem with sharks being consumed in this manner is the health issues the sharks begin to bring humans who eat too much of it. 

When it comes to sharks being consumed people don't realize how much mercury they are consuming. Sharks have one of the highest levels of mercury to tuna and many other fishes, and some believe that sharks can help prevent cancer. However the problem with this reasoning is that scientists have already tested sharks for cancer and found out that the sharks are born with it from the beginning. Nobody is helping their health by eating shark fin soup, in fact if you were to ask some people they might say that it is shortening their lives.

Recently in a Texas Congressman by the name Blake Farenthold introduced the Justice Attributed to Wounded Sharks Act on July 6,2015. This act abbreviated is named the JAWS Act which is appropriate for what it says. The JAWS Act prohibits granting of United States foreign assistance into the countries that do not prohibit shark finning in the territorial water of the country or the sale, possession, importation, or consumption of shark fins obtained as a result of shark finning. This Act is an important step to show the international community where the United States stands on the issue and encourage other nations to follow suit.

The JAWS Act is to show those who are in the international communities that the United States doesn't allow shark fins, in the States. This Act is very important to those in the shark loving community because it gives the sharks a voice which they need since a lot of their species are almost extinct. Sharks are known for being really mean and to attack people on purpose, but what really happens is just an accident most of the time. Shark finning is the cruelest way to kill and animal, and since sharks have to swim to be able to breath then when their fins are cut off they can't get the oxygen from the water. 

The reasons sharks are going extinct from the shark finning is not only that they are being killed in the millions but sharks can take up to forty years to become fully mature. Sharks also have a long gestation period which can be up to about two years depending on the shark. However some sharks actually lay "eggs" which is actually just a pouch that a baby shark will develop in. Other sharks give birth to live young which are about half the adult sharks size when they are born. Sharks like the zebra sharks lay pouches or as some like to call them "eggs" and if someone held up the pouch to a light they would either see a little shark growing inside of it or it would be empty.

People killing sharks for their fins is pretty pointless if you were to ask me. Sharks don't really taste great so people say, sharks are high in mercury, and  these days it is the most expensive soup in the world. Sharks can feel pain just like a human does, so cutting their fins off with a sharp serrated knife doesn't really do much except hurt them till they get to the bottom of the ocean and suffocate. If a person was to see a shark in its natural habitat like in South Africa then they would see how majestic they are while they swim and breach out of the water after a seal like a great white. However in South Africa sharks are known as a "black suit" because they are always seen in the ocean every day that they look like they are black on top and they just do what they want. Also South Africa has a shark attack quite frequently and they protect their sharks because they respect them. 

Shark fin soup is an ugly thing, its used in China for weddings, banquets, and special occasions now but its how the sharks are treated that makes it the most horrible thing in the world. Some sharks are beaten to death before their fins are cut off, while others cut the fins off of the shark while it is still alive on the boat. People fear sharks so much that they don't realize that if you enter the ocean they are in the sharks world and they can't do anything about it. Most people like the idea of sharks being killed for their fins, but if the soup is so bad for people they should stop eating it. One sharks fins counts for just a couple bowls of shark fin soup so that means that in those few bowls people are consuming almost 1.0 amounts of mercury. These days there are about 143 shark species that are at a high risk of being extinct either now or in the future.

Author's Note

Works Cited
https://stopsharkfinning.net 2007-2013
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5308 July 2015
https://http://www.texasgopvote.com/government/congressman-blake-farenthold-introduces-hr5308-justice-attributed-wounded-sharks-007005#sthash.z88gbjnD.dpuf 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r65FgUYdBOc Gordon Ramsey 2011