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Antony Dickson / AFP - Getty Images
Shark fins drying in the sun cover the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.
Paul Hilton / EPA
Approximately 18 thousand shark fins are left out to dry on top of an industrial building in Hong Kong's Kennedy Town district on Jan. 2, 2013.
Bobby Yip / Reuters
Shark fins, which cost between HK$2,880 ($369) and HK$3,580 ($459) per Chinese catty (1 pound), are seen on display inside a dried seafood store in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.
Shark fin traders in Hong Kong have taken to drying freshly sliced fins on rooftops since a public outcry over them drying the fins on public sidewalks forced them to move the trade out of sight.
Activists have raised concerns that the over-harvesting of fins is causing an environmental calamity. Although sales have fallen in recent years Hong Kong remains one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make soup that is an expensive staple at Chinese banquets.
-- European Pressphoto Agency, Agence France-Presse, Reuters
Bobby Yip / Reuters
Thousands of pieces of shark fin are dried on the rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. The fins were shipped from an unknown location and unloaded at a nearby pier to be dried on the rooftop.
Bobby Yip / Reuters
Workers lay out pieces of shark fin to dry on a rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. Local sales of the luxurious gourmet food have fallen in recent years due to its controversial nature, but activists demand a total shark fin ban in the city, labelled by some as the shark fin capital of the world.
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Disgusting !
Agreed. There's no reason why pedestrians should have to avoid shark fins on the sidewalk.
If the HK authorities really wanted it stopped it would be stopped. They aren't exactly doing this in secret. They are going to kill off species for the sake of gourmet eating or aphrodisiacs and they really don't care.
When we've finally killed all of the sharks in the ocean and forever upset the balance of the world's waters - only then will we see the stupidity of our ways. We don't deserve this wonderous Earth that we inhabit. We try our best to kill all of the fish, plants, trees and animals that we come in contact with. One day we will depopulate the earth of everything that makes it sustainable for use to live - then we'll have the world that we deserve. Remember, the Earth will rejuvenate itself. It will live on, even if it takes millions of years to re-establish the species we annilate. However, we won't last long enough to see it happen. We are right now creating our own extinction.
You hit the nail on the head R. Peterson, I couldn't have said it better! It makes me sick to see all those shark fins they are torturing these creatures they can not swim without there fin therefore they drown slowly. What is wrong with those people that they don't realize how wrong it is to do what they do can we just annihilate them instead? I like sharks better than I like them anyways.
I'm pretty sure they don't leave the sharks alive when their fins are harvested. Much like the ivory trade - they just leave the carcass behind unless there's a demand for it. As China grows and expands, the more damage they'll do to the planet. At least with the record-levels of smog and pollution they're generating, the respiratory illnesses and cancers their populace will develop might do the planet a favor and begin culling out the overpopulation.
The Chinese have been busy--they have set up birthing schools in California--come to America when a Chinese woman is 8-months pregnant--have the baby--now a US citizen--gets all the benifits
Is there such thing as 'farm-raised' sharks? Perhaps they take that direction so they quit annihilating the oceans population and discarding the bodies as trash?
why are these people still alive, shoot these evil dirt-bags on sight!!!
they would be all dead if I able to get on those roof tops with them - all of them need a bullet to the head, the ones that consume, harvest, hunt and sell this savage, idiotic soup...
guns will help in the eradication of these vermin I see in these photos...
Why don't chinese just eat Ramen Noodles ?
Vile heathens...
All those fins in one place... Not that I'm suggesting anything criminal here, but if I was a member of Greenpeace or some other animal rights organization, I might try to contaminate the product so it's unsellable. Maybe I would use a waterballoon launcher from nearby rooftops as my method of delivery.
China has a long history of an utter disregard for the world. Demons in human disguises, that's all they are.
Deplorable .....They should have their limbs cut off and then should be thrown in a pool
These ghoulish purveyors of shark fins as well as the food ''connoiseurs'' whose palates demand them, should be ''rewarded'' with high levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic and a ''smorgasbord'' of other heavy metals to satisfy their discriminating tastes.
I feel so sick when I look at this. Greed of human nature is vile.
Once I was offered shark fin soup in Hong Kong, I already knew of its nature, but did not want to offend the host. In damn Chinese tradition, giving "face" to the host is ingrained in the society. Some traditions should die.
Let's just hope the Chinese don't develop a craving for baby fingers.
The Chinese will destroy anything in their pursuit to further their "traditional foods" to the detriment to the rest of the world...They have to get it through their head "They are NOT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD" contrary to their own self image: Tamen bushr Zhongguo de Zhong...bu jende...duile
Take the whole fishing crew out to sea, cut off their legs and arms and throw them overboard. Then we can call them bobs.
Chinese will eat anything, including hair, rats, and aother rodents. Why not engineer a rat with fins?
The practice of "roof-top" cultivating or drying is nothing new. The corrupt politicians are stuffing their pockets, the Hong Kong shark fin trade is thriving!
Roof-top "cultivation or drying" is nothing new, it's all about space! Corrupt Hong Kong politicians have been stuffing their pockets for years and the shark fin trade is thriving. I would love to think our efforts to curtail this horrible practice in Hong Kong is working but I truly have my doubts.
Yum Sharkfin! You all are way to serious. Didn't you see Jaws? We really need to eradicate these deadly sea monsters! If we don't they may develop a way to get on land and eat us!
We should be shutting down all trade with these countries, until they stop trying to wipe out all these different species. Whether its Japan, or China. Or any other country for that matter.
Im so sick of our government ignoring what these other countries are doing to the environment.
Shark fin soup is tasty. Eating it is no difference to eating tuna or other seafood.
This is a huge business hidden business in Costa Rica too. There are off limit docks and warehouses that tourists don't see. Fiercely protected you might say.