I love to eat seafood. I love to drive down to the wharf (seafood
market) in Washington D.C and walk around getting fresh tuna, and salmon to fry
up at home. The happiest moment is when we go get the fresh tiger shrimp and
king/soft shell crab to boil when I get back to home. I also enjoy sushi very
much, it took me a while to warm up to the idea of eating raw fish but I managed
to do it and now I am addicted. One thing we never think about when we eat
seafood is the health benefits that they give us.
One particular sea creature that offers us human’s health
benefits is the shark. To be more specific the fin of the shark offers us
medical treatments. The use of the shark fin is considered an alternative treatment.
This treatment has been around for many years, mainly in the Asian culture. What
makes shark fin so medically useful is when it is in soup form it promotes
general well-being. Also, one of the most commonly known medical properties of shark
fin is that it has anti-cancer bodies (“Traditional”). Although there is no
scientific research that has proven this, it is a strong belief in some culture.
Shark fin is made up of cartilage which is a form of connective
tissue. In Japan it is sold in whole, tablet and powder form by herbalist. It
is sold in the West in a powdered form as a dietary supplement. This treatment
has drawn not only positive but negative attention especially from
environmentalist. It was stated in the
article “Traditional Medicines Continue to Thrive Globally” that the environmentalist
believe that the use of fin in medicine is threatening to deplete the population
of sharks. Also it was stated that people were cutting off the fin of the shark
while it was a live and threw it back in to the water (“Traditional”).
I personally would like to see more experimenting done
with sharks fin because the belief in its anti-cancer bodies is so strong that I
believe there is something there to it. I plan on trying shark fin soup one
day. I do not think physically trying tradition alternative treatments could hurt
you much because if they did I hope they would not have been continually
practiced over time. I actually found a restaurant not to far from here in
Annandale called Duck Chang's Restaurant, which sells the soup.
"Traditional
Medicines Continue to Thrive Globally." CNN. N.p., 24 June 2009.
Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
This is an intriguing post. And your discussion does highlight both the positives and the negatives in relation to shark fin usage. But you need to back up the initial discussions you have here. Is there data to back up shark fin usage as promoting "general welfare"? And what about the environmentalists' point about the depletion of sharks in the wild due to overfishing for use in primarily Asian markets? Use synthesis by adding additional research and backing up/supporting the main discussion here. Both sides can be right: there can be benefits but there is also depletion. Which is more beneficial? If all the sharks are overfished, what medicinal benefits will there be with mass extinctions of sharks? And what happens to the food chain when the predator is now gone?
ReplyDeleteExplore these points further!