What I read
The BBC article “Shark on UK plates highlights trade in endangered species” (2019) by Helen Briggs reported the study by the University of Exeter that over 100 shark meat samples were sold on chip shops, supermarkets, and fishmonger shops in UK even though these samples is processed and impossible to identify the species from external characters. The researchers then decided to apply DNA barcoding to compare the similarity of DNA sequences in order to distinguish species, which turn out that two threatened shark species were included in these samples. In addition, global eating sharks and other cartilaginous fishes as a food increased by 42% in the past 10 years, although these fishes might not be a good choice for sustainable food and have high risk to be extinct.
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My response
This article is shocking me by the popularity of eating and selling shark meat in UK. Eating sharks is very popular in Asian country, especially China, Vietnam and Thailand. A large number of sharks is hunted in Thai seas, and as in the article, the number of sharks in the ocean is hugely decreasing. As we have known, sharks play an important role in ocean food chain, as the top predator, or are called as keystone species. Decreasing number of the keystone species makes tremendous effects to ecosystem, for instance, the species that are used to be hunted by keystone species will increase and dominate lower species in a food chain, then harm to a balance of food web. Hunting sharks and other cartilaginous fishes usually happens directly from the ocean since they are difficult to farm and require huge time plus investment to produce them as food. By this reason, I do not quite agree with eating this kind of unsustainable food which also makes a huge effect to the ecosystem.
In addition, this research is quite similar to my thesis work during a bachelor degree. I apply DNA barcoding to create the database of edible jellyfish in Thailand and identify the species of processed edible jellyfish. I found that most of processed jellyfish in supermarkets, local markets, and restaurants mostly belong to only one species, but the price is range from 100 - 1,000 baht per kg. which depends on the 'label'. This article also mentioned a problem of label which usually misleads consumers by labelling shark meat as other higher price fish and making price higher. I thus totally agree with the utility of DNA application for identify these 'impossible to identify' processed meat.
In addition, this research is quite similar to my thesis work during a bachelor degree. I apply DNA barcoding to create the database of edible jellyfish in Thailand and identify the species of processed edible jellyfish. I found that most of processed jellyfish in supermarkets, local markets, and restaurants mostly belong to only one species, but the price is range from 100 - 1,000 baht per kg. which depends on the 'label'. This article also mentioned a problem of label which usually misleads consumers by labelling shark meat as other higher price fish and making price higher. I thus totally agree with the utility of DNA application for identify these 'impossible to identify' processed meat.
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My question
Do you agree with eating sharks is usual and normal, and would you like to try if you have a chance?
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Reference
- Briggs, H. (2019, January 31). Shark on UK plates highlights trade in endangered species. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47044101
Mmmm ... edible jellyfish – I love it. (OK, that's a bit informal, but we can make exceptions when they are appropriate, and although I'm writing with my morning coffee, I haven't had breakfast, and have just been arranging lunch tomorrow, which will include a lot of seafood, including edible jellyfish.)
ReplyDeleteMore formally, Non writes "As we have known" about the ecological importance of sharks, but I hadn't known that. I suppose if I had thought about it, I would have, but I hadn't until I read Non's very useful explanation in the first paragraph of his response. And having come to it just after reading and replying to New's post above, it seemed to me another example of how humans now control the entire planet, often exercising with little or no thought life or death over other animals and living things.
And I'm very fond of shark. I think I should now have breakfast before I reply to any more of your excellent blog posts.
I have ate shark meat once and never understand why people sell it in that high price. I'm not the type of person who is strong in animal conservation but reading the article like this, saying about some species must be extinct because of human is sad.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely disagree in eating sharks in usual. Sharks is not animals for meat. We have several kinds of fishes and other sea animals that easier to find and more delicious. A big number of shark species, in many countries, is almost extinct. I think we have this problem in large area, not only sharks but also another animals such as tigers, elephants and deer. people hunt animals for unnecessary reason and that destroy ecosystem.
I have eaten shark fin once, when I was in China. I didn't like it that much and it wasn't as delicious as I had imagined before. When I grew up, I have learned in Biology that sharks play an important role in the ecosystem and if humans still hunt them this high rate, sharks will be on the verge of extinction soon. So I don't think that eating shark is normal and usual.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor me, personally, I used to eat shark fin in a Chinese restaurant, though it is not many times. However, I have not yet tried shark meat. As I read Non comment about shark is a top predator in the ocean, I have recognized that I used to study this topic in the school, but have never connected with my life until I read this comment which I totally agree with him about this. I also heard some news that sharks have been hunted to get only their fin and thrown back to the ocean. I am thinking that, regardless the extinction of an animal, if we would like to hunt any animals to be our food, we should use all parts of their body meaning that we respect them, which is also an ethic of being a chef and I agree with it. Beyond that, when people consider to have some meat, you should concern about the effect that will come to our society. If that animal is almost extinct, you should avoid killing them to be able to control or ecosystem, since if human destroy the ecosystem, we are the one who got a huge impact on the result.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, as humans, it seem like we can eat whatever animals in the earth but what we do has an effect on ourselves. Human hunts many kinds of animals, some for meat, some for their fur, horn or skin and some just for fun, which is meaningless. We keep hunting them until someday in the future many species must be extinct at last. Then it is us who must get the effect.
DeleteDo you mean it's OK to eat any animal not threatened with extinction, such as dogs, cats, and so on?
DeleteThis topic is related to my previous study since I was studied during a bachelor degree. I did some research about hunting shark and I've known that the percentage of sharks were killed by the human is higher than the percentage of human were killed by sharks. The process of getting sharks to make food is so cruel, so I completely disagree with eating sharks. I've never eaten it before, and I think I absolutely would not try it.
ReplyDeleteI think eating sharks is unusual, although many people have tried eating them, I don't know why eating sharks becomes popular. Are sharks delicious? If I have chance, I won't try eating them. Sharks usually keep urea in their muscles to survive in the sea, so I don't think sharks smell good, but shark fin have least amount of urea; this may be reason why a lot of people eat shark fins.
ReplyDeleteI heard something about a main reason that people eat shark. This believe came from China since the ancient time. China people believe that shark fin have plenty of nutrition and make you healthy. In contrast, there are some experiment about this believe, the scientist conclude that the nutrition in shark fin is only equivalent to an egg.
DeleteActually7, as Non's summary tells us, shark is very commonly eaten in the UK. It's not a specialty food, but is cheap, and clearly a lot of people who go to the shops that sell it are happy to eat shark, which is often passed off as other fish.
DeleteFor me, I think eating sharks is unusual. I have eaten shark fin once in the Chinese restaurant and I didn't like its taste that much. The absent of the shark will make the ecosystem became worst so I think we should stop eating sharks before it will become extinct.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean that if something is unusual it is a bad thing to do? That would mean that when hamburgers first arrived in Thailand, it would have been bad to eat them. Was it ever bad to eat hamburgers?
DeleteAs I read your comments, several worry about whether we should be eating other animals or not. I liked the supporting reasons, but of course, supporting reasons have logical consequences. For example, if you think that it's wrong to eat meat whose production has caused an animal suffering, that would make a lot of chicken and pork morally wrong to eat: if animals are grown in miserable conditions that are unnatural, they suffer, and eating their meat encourages other people, especially large companies to continue the torture.
ReplyDeleteBut we also need a reason to treat other animals differently to human animals. If it's OK to eat a pig that had a happy life before it was killed, why would it not also be OK to eat an elephant, a shark, a dog or any other animal not threatened with extinction? Indeed, why would it not be wrong to eat at least some humans, since we are definitely not under any threat of extinction?
I have studied about ecosystem that sharks are keystone species which it is the most important for the food chain and the marine ecosystem, if keystone species are decreasing it will effect to other fishes for sure. It is the big problem that people eat shark meat in usual and I do not agree with them. However, I never eat shark meats and if I have a chance to taste it, I will not.
ReplyDeleteI think animals which are endangered species should not be hunted or eaten by humans. Also, animals which are keystone species of the food web should not be eaten by humans too, no matter they are on the verge of extinction or not. Just like P'Non mentioned in the summary article, the change in the amount of the keystone species will affect the balance of the whole food web and our ecosystem. For example, in a simple food chain, if sharks eat the smaller fishes and the smaller fishes eat water plants. If the number of sharks decrease, there would be an increase in the number of smaller fishes, which will lead to a decrease number of water plants. Water plants are the producer of this food chain, when there are not enough producers, other animals would not be able to survive.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to concern about eating animal is not to eat some species that are the top predator or in the high tropic level of the food chain because the amount of toxic in each animals will accumulate 10 times more in each tropic level of the food chain. If we eat the top predator of the food chain, we will gain more toxic than eating animals in the lower tropic level.
I am a little bit shock when I read that people are eating and sell shark. It is not normal that you will eat shark and if I have a chance, I will not try to eat it. Actually, eating animal is not healthy and bring about a lot of disease such as cancer, so I do support people to eat vegetarian that can improve people's health.
ReplyDeleteAs far as animal right is concerned, sharks should not be eaten by humans. We can see a lot of environmental effects from this article as a result of hunting sharks for being food in many countries, and I totally agree that this causes a dramatic interference on natural food chain.
ReplyDeleteApart from that, DNA identification technology should also be use for making prices of processed meat products more fair for customer.
In my opinion, I think it's ok to eat an animal that we used to eat, for example chicken, pork, or beef. Human takes care of these animals for food for along, so it's usual to eat these animals. It's like we feel familiar to eat them. However, there are a lot of animals that some people eat them even though they are not animals for food, such as a shark, a monkey, an elephant, and pet like a dog or a cat. I think eating an animal that people don't take care of them as food is not ok and it's unusual things to do. Moreover, hunting an animal that is not for food may have an impact on the environment and the nature. It would cause the extinction problem for some animal, for example a manatee, which is known as a sea-cow, this animal was hunted in Thailand so many years ago. Nowadays, there is no manatees in Thailand because they all were killed.
ReplyDelete