Shark's fin soup!

Sharks are Miss C's favorite animal, she knows, she knows, they're fish! Miss C loves sharks very much. When Miss C was a tiny girl she had a little obsession with a Time Life book, The Fishes. Miss C's dad owned the book and there was a picture of a shark feeding frenzy. Little Miss C would ask to see the pic a few times a day. Miss C would then ask to see the picture of the "birunyun." The pic of the birunyun was actually a pic of a piranha, Miss C's second most favorite fish, for obvious reasons. Anyway, a new nature series came on PBS, a few months back and they did a piece about sharks being "slaughtered" for sharks fin soup. They showed cruel Asian fishermen catching sharks and cutting off the shark's fins and throwing the sharks back into the water while the sharks are still alive. On a visceral level, Miss C did feel bad for the sharks. It's only human to do so, and of course, Miss C loves sharks. Makos are her favorite, then tiger sharks, then great whites, white tip reef sharks and black tip reef sharks, then blue sharks. She does love them, yes indeedy. But then Miss C began to think about how silly it is to worry about the feelings of sharks. After all sharks don't worry about the feelings of the cute little sea lions or the sweet little seabirds or the handsome abalone divers. Sharks do not mind tearing off body parts and leaving their victims to pump out all their blood into the water. No sirree. I think that people can take comfort in knowing that most sharks must swim continuously in order to pump oxygen over their gills. Once their fins have been sliced off they will sink to the bottom and drown fairly quickly.