Freshmen year, Biology class. That’s when my teacher, Mr. Egbuji, showed me and my class for the first time the pivotal documentary “Sharkwater.” Like any mundane documentaries shown in class, we thought this one was another boring 1 hour plus video that represented an instructor’s laziness or inaptitude for teaching. This was certainly an exception.
The movie showed a marine biologist documenting the backwards and inhumane finning industry that’s still ongoing in Southeast and East Asia. This film showed brutal executions of underwater mammals, ranging from different species of dolphins and whales, and one specific group of fish, the shark, in various oceans and seas across the globe. It showed that all these bloodbaths occurring today in different corners of our world happened predominantly because of one thing: the fins. The facts were laid out and opinions were told. A movie like this would have an obvious final message: these underwater mammals are essential to the aquatic ecosystem and they are now extremely endangered because of these ignorant and intractable industries plaguing marine life. Those are, however, just words of preach that would fly by anyone involved in the finning business because why in the hell would they care?
Sharks and dolphins like these get finned every day and either dropped in to the bottom of the ocean to drown, or hacked in to bits to be sold for its meat. Source: David Vogt Fotografie
This opinion piece is not about stating the facts and why we should react to it: humanity doesn’t work like that. It’d be nice to think that the majority shifts towards certain directions because of plain facts. Scientifically, we know that annihilating a top predator in any ecosystem is not only dire to the creatures living in it, but also to us. We also know that the fins and meat of top predator marine mammals that are consumed by specific cultures contain crippling amounts of mercury in them. We also know that poverty and child labor is bad; however, you don’t see us doing anything monumental to change it.
It’s called a ‘social’ change for a reason. To instill recognizable impact to a cruel and empirically damaging human action, we have to make that certain action ‘taboo.’ On the other hand, making an action taboo today is not about screaming at someone or a group of people that they’re bad, terrible people.
In a way, the individuals involved in the finning industry are not evil. It’s not like they are up in their ominous lairs cooking up more plans to rile environmentalists or left wing liberals. The industry itself is incredibly profitable, and these people, ranging from fishermen to distributors, have a family to feed. To them and to most of the people around the world, sharks are a danger to human society and hence why we should not feel guilty about killing them, as they would do the same to us. It’s not a surprise that the people involved in this finning industry act like curmudgeons as anti-finning will directly affect their livelihoods.
In a certain angle, this thought process could be justifiable. Any cultural happenstance during one point of human history had a deductive and, in their eyes, a sane order of reasoning to rationalize their actions. Ranging from the Nazi Party’s acceptance of the Holocaust to cannibalism from different native tribes during different times in history, the people who were committing the act that we now see as horrific and taboo at one point thought it was completely normal and acceptable.
So, how do we get these immovable finning companies and fishermen to stop what they’re doing?
As Aristotle proved the Earth was round, we have to submerge the world with empirical data; however, we must use only a certain type.
We, the anti-finning supporters, have to empathize and care about the individuals who are doing the act itself. I am not talking about going full John Lennon-peace-all-over-the-world jumbo. What I’m talking about is a cultural shift through self realization. The shift in the tactics used by any animal rights activist organizations shouldn’t be using the damning evidence to downplay their actions, but to show them how it’d harm themselves too.
We are selfish creatures. That’s why we were able to make it this far on Earth and do the things that we are doing now. Showing us how ‘similar’ the brains of dolphins and whales are to ours won’t change much. It would allow us to empathize to a certain point, but never enough to start a global outcry. There’s a reason why PETA is… well PETA. They claim that they changed a lot of things but in all honesty, they’re just a pebble thrown in a pond the size of Donald Trump’s ego. There are people starving, getting unlawfully executed, and getting massacred all over the world yet we can’t even muster up enough empathy to change such horrific things that are happening to our very own species.
Environmentalists, for decades, have been trying to convince the masses about the dooming effects of global warming. Why doesn’t it work? It’s too long term; it’s too long term for our minds to fully grasp and immerse ourselves with what will come.
On the contrary, to take advantage of how our brains are wired, there has to be a bigger effort into showing the ones involved in the finning industry how their actions can bring immense harm to themselves individually. To the consumers of fin, there has to be constant objective reminders that tell them the high level of mercury in the food that they’re eating, and how it will most likely harm themselves and their offspring.
A pretty rare infographic that shows us how much mercury is contained in most cuts of dolphin and whale meat that are being distributed in the food market today. Source: EIA International
Japan has just finned 200 Minke Whales for ‘research’ purposes. Most of the meat captured by their so-called scientific hunt will go into the food market. Japan is also a victim of the Minamata Disease. The severe mercury consumption through the corrupted water systems of Minamata city created a neurological disease that disables most features of the body and the brain. It haunts the nation till this day. The two dots have to be connected and connected so boldly that the people can see. Mercury crippled the nation once, and now it’s entering their lives once more through the dining rooms all over the country.
A Japanese mother bathes his son who has been plagued by the Minamata disease. This particular photo has been circulated countless times throughout Japan to remind the people about the horrors of mercury poisoning. Source: Japan Daily Press
Not only is Japan one of the biggest whaling countries in the world, but it happens to be one of the biggest finning ones too. Documentaries like “The Cove” show us how certain provinces in Japan carry on dolphin and shark finning under the pretext of preserving traditions; however, culture and tradition constantly change throughout time. These changes come about not because of altruistic reasons, but mainly because certain archaic form of cultural acts affected individuals in an immensely negative way. Things such as incest and rape over time has not only caused irreparable harm to powerless individuals, but also allocated crippling amounts of guilt to the societies/cultures involved. One thing residents of Japan should know today is that shame and guilt are, and has been for centuries, one of the biggest motivators and stoppers of actions. The shameful act of serving up poison to the Japanese dining room in itself could be a good enough motivation for fishermen to curb their finning activities.
Yet, the majority of anti-finning campaigns resort to directly shaming their actions. They’re trying to ‘stimulate’ the fishermen’s and businessmen’s humanity by asking them ‘how could you do this to these smart mammals of the sea?” Take a look at this anti-finning campaing for example:
Anti-finning poster created by Stop Shark Finning. Source: Stop Shark Finning
‘Just Plain Wrong.’ It doesn’t even imply that shark fin in itself is poison to our health, and proceeds on to strike change in us by taking the moral highway. Campaigns like these, while having such a plethora of useful information connecting top predator mammal meat to basically mercury poison, are inefficient and should shift their message.
Shark, dolphin, and whale meet kills us, humans. Fishermen and businessmen involved in this trade should be ashamed because they’re killing humans, not these mammals. They should feel guilty for serving up poison, which have been proven countless of times, to children and adults alike. Humanity is known for biting much more than we can chew, and acting like we are an all loving altruistic being will only prove to be our downfall. This should be the point where we strive for social and cultural change, like we always have, through human incentives.
The finning industry may be big, but it is definitely not a conglomerate when it comes to the world market. It can be brought down by bringing down the demand of the product, and in this case there’s an immense arsenal of doing so. As I’ve mentioned above, we are selfish. Spreading more and more awareness of the adverse effects of consuming top marine predator meat to us would resonate more to the human race rather than trying to make dolphins, sharks, and whales more relatable.
Governments shouldn’t focus so much on putting up legislations that would harshly punish those involved in the industry. They should look into economically supporting the ones that decide to step away from it. The major reason why fishermen fin is because of the economic reward it gives; however, programs and support package deals provided by the government may give more incentive for finning fishermen to stop what they’re doing and look onwards for a different profession as it will spare them the guilt. There is obviously a high risk in the finning business, and if an authority can provide a way for individuals to gradually shift to another profession that is in legal bounds with economic support, there could be some progress.
The message to stop finning should be for all the people, both who are against it and doing it. The process to stop finning should, again, be for all the people, both who are against it and doing it. As sad it is to say, our current human condition requires us to hone into our own needs before the needs of others; however, we could hone our selfishness in a way that can at least benefit the rest of mankind.