Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Good News for Sharks

I love sharks, and now and then I like to just post some good news (partly because what passes for "news" is almost universally "bad news" in our culture)

Anyway, one thing that fills me with rage is shark finning. Call me crazy, but I'm not sure killing between 30 and 100 million sharks each year for their fins is a good idea. I mean, I love soup as much as the next guy, but maybe we don't need to annihilate every large species of shark on Earth in order to have shark-fin soup.

Every once in a while, a government tries to do something about this ongoing atrocity. In this case, surprisingly, our government.
Interestingly, this piece of legislation was introduced by a Democrat from Guam. I guess maybe something this good just can't come from those continental losers who seem to get us into all of this trouble all the time.
Go Guam!

4 comments:

Aric Clark said...

Nice. If only the oceans weren't so hard to legislate. However, the success with several species of whales in the last decade gives me hope that the fight for sharks is not a doomed one.

Jodie said...

I love the expression on the face of this shark and how it shows off his razor sharp teeth.

(But I'm glad sharks can't really make faces. That would really scare the daylights out of me)

Douglas Underhill said...

Nope, they don't make faces. Each species seems to have its own threat-display (with the exception of the solitary vegetarian sharks that is, like the whale shark or basking shark).

That's actually part of what I like about sharks - they scare the bejeezus out of me, and challenge me to overcome what is a totally irrational fear. I love quoting the statistic that you are more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker than by a shark - worldwide, not just in NY :)

Of course, some New Yorkers scare me too.

Aric Clark said...

I personally like the statistic from that documentary we saw... you are more likely to be killed by a soda vending machine than by a shark.