Sharks get a rough time of it from us lot. Some of us are afraid of them, others fascinated, but we're all at least impressed. Some of the best-sellers in the shop are fossil shark teeth, so I owe them a great deal. Sharks are the lions of the sea. Or to avoid any letters of complaint from sealions, maybe sharks are the tigers of the sea. They have been around for a long time and proved themselves thoroughly effective predators but seem to have met their match in humans. Most species of shark face some level of extinction threat - and may be lost within the next few decades at current rates of decline. The process of collecting shark fins for a stupid soup is revolting. I'd suggest that anyone wanting shark fin soup should collect the ingredients themselves, by hand. So - all power to Shark Week if it at least raises awareness a little.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
A week to themselves
Mothers get a day. Fathers get a day. Sharks get a whole week. So greedy. But anyway - it's Shark Week this week. Right now. So go and hug a shark. Well - okay - go and... Go and... How do you celebrate Shark Week? It's been running since 1987, the brainchild of the Discovery Channel who pack their schedule with relevant programming.
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4 comments:
I'm just bummed that Shark Week routinely beats Egypt week in the Discovery Channel ratings. Now, that's just not right!
If you can get Egyptian Shark week a slot, you could be onto something. I saw a documentary once about a town plagued by mummified sharks. Luckily, four teenagers and their dog saved the day. Turned out it was the groundskeeper all along.
Sonya messaged me to tell me about the organisation she works for in Vancouver, raising awareness about the effects of shark finning/consuming shark fin soup in the Chinese community. It's not Beijing, but Vancouver has the highest percentage of Chinese people in Canada. If you are interested, it's called Shark Truth - www.sharktruth.com
Having just checked, the Shark Truth site has been hijacked and is temporarily unavailable. You can find them on twitter for the time being, though, @SharkTruth.
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