Shem Creek - A seafood-lover's paradise!

Workers in Hong Kong sort shark fins destined for dinner tables.
Credit: NYT

Sharks have been around for millions of years, but like all things at the top of the food chain that we consume, our insatiable appetites will get the best of us in the end if we don’t practice some good conservation techniques.

We already know from the WWF that bluefin tuna will be extinct by 2012. Now we have another big problem: sharks are being killed by the millions — 100 million a year according to the NYT!

Click on those piles of shark fins. Notice the guy in the back hiding his face? Yea, he knows scalping sharks just for their fins is wrong, but one way or another, the industry flourishes.

Their specialty: Double Boiled Superior Shark’s Fin w/Seawhelk 响蜾炖鸡鲍翅

As a matter of fact, American owned Citibank has been using shark fins for marketing; their website is currently advertising a 15% discount at Singapore’s Imperial Court Shark’s Fin Restaurant.

Thanks to public awareness from conservationists though – most notably Hong Kong’s Shark Saver’s campaign – the word is finally getting out. Maybe now, sharks will be left alone and allowed to continue their important job as a top-level predator.

Here’s a short teaser of Shark Saver’s Hong Kong campaign highlighting several people taking a stand, vowing not to eat shark fin soup, and asking others to join in. It’s the first in a series of several films from their Hong Kong filming project launched in conjunction with the “Pledge Not to Eat Shark Fin Soup” campaign and Shark Savers Hong Kong. Take the pledge now!

The CCL has some great information in the video below for South Carolinian’s about our wetlands across the state – including swamps and salt marsh.

It also discusses development along the coastline – including over 2000 islands that could foreseeably have bridges connecting them to the mainland. Thanks to Nancy Vinson and several other citizens’ hard work, 95% of those proposed bridges were denied development!

It is well worth your time to watch this short video from the Coastal Conservation League if you are at all interested in the pristine environment that so much of South Carolina has to offer.