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Obama in hot water over shark fin soup

Middleground said:
I used to work in a seafood restaurant. We got our shark from a farm. It can be done. I am not talking about great whites here... some sharks are pretty small and can be farmed successfully.

Your website link does mention that a small percentage of sharks are harvested for meat. So why do these finners not take the whole carcass? As I wrote previously, shark contains a lot of mercury. Second, the meat, unless processed properly will reek of urine. Some cultures relish that delicious ammonia taste but most don't.
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Talk about nostalgia. I saw this one show on Swedish [I think] culture on how they actually rot the meat tobring out certain flavors.
 
Wake said:
Talk about nostalgia. I saw this one show on Swedish [I think] culture on how they actually rot the meat tobring out certain flavors.
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Lutefisk. Means literally "lye fish." I bet it's not so much for the flavor as it is a very old, very desperate attempt to preserve surplus fish.
 
My dad had a friend that was a child during Hitler's ruleof Germany. I would love to sit down and compare the German civil laws to the trillions of laws we have as to what we can and can no longer. Hitler did not have cameras every twenty feet on the streets of Hamburgh and on traffic lights nor did his government spie on his people via satellites or cameras and microphones in all businesses. He did not track his people's social and econmic habits via computers. Think you are free?! HA-HA-HA!
 
rhinefire said:
My dad had a friend that was a child during Hitler's ruleof Germany. I would love to sit down and compare the German civil laws to the trillions of laws we have as to what we can and can no longer. Hitler did not have cameras every twenty feet on the streets of Hamburgh and on traffic lights nor did his government spie on his people via satellites or cameras and microphones in all businesses. He did not track his people's social and econmic habits via computers. Think you are free?! HA-HA-HA!
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To be fair, if the technology had existed (in a usable form), the Nazis probably would have done all those things.
 
radcen said:
I would rather he or his people respond with something like, "The President didn't order the soup. Is there supposed to be a point behind your rantings?"
But, that wouldn't be dignified for a President, I'm sure.
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Who says though, you know? I want a POTUS that speaks like us. Thats what I'm sick of with politicians. Just speak your mind man.
 
radcen said:
To be fair, if the technology had existed (in a usable form), the Nazis probably would have done all those things.
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The too, would have been the case with Hoover and Kefauver Technology evolves, and so does the need to readdress the issue.
 
radcen said:
I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to trying new foods, but that's one I will not try.
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Ranks pretty high on the most disgusting things I've ever ate.
 
Hatuey said:
Maybe that's why you got picked to be a DM? Cognitive abilities aren't something the mod team looks for these days. :shrug:
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I bet a bowl of shark fin soup would cheer you up.
 
It's refreshing to see that none of the anti-Obama crowd are biting on this one and pretending to be animal rights activists or something in an effort to feign outrage. I sincerely do applaud that.
 
Dr_Patrick said:
It's refreshing to see that none of the anti-Obama crowd are biting on this one and pretending to be animal rights activists or something in an effort to feign outrage. I sincerely do applaud that.
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That's because it's not "shark week" on Discovery, bro.
 
Middleground said:
Your website link does mention that a small percentage of sharks are harvested for meat. So why do these finners not take the whole carcass? As I wrote previously, shark contains a lot of mercury. Second, the meat, unless processed properly will reek of urine. Some cultures relish that delicious ammonia taste but most don't.
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I don't think there is much concern for mercury levels because even shark fins contain an abnormally large amount of mercury (tuna has a lot of mercury too...any major preditor is going to have high concentrations of mercury due to our pollution). Mostly they don't take it because the fins are the most expensive piece on the shark and you can store way more fins if you don't store the carcass as well. They'd make less money if they were to take the whole of the carcass over just harvesting the fins.

That being said, it's a pathetic practice and I for one won't encourage it. I'm not much of an animal right's activist or anything like that; but finning practices are idiotic at best and the devistation it can have on the shark population is a bit too much for my tastes.
 
Dr_Patrick said:
It's refreshing to see that none of the anti-Obama crowd are biting on this one and pretending to be animal rights activists or something in an effort to feign outrage. I sincerely do applaud that.
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I'm not an animal rights activist but I do have a soft spot in my heart for most animals. I didn't know really anything about shark "finning" until I read it here. If it's true, that the fins are taken and the rest discarded, I can't say I'd care much for that practice. All that being said, all Obama did was eat at a restaurant where shark fin soup was sold, and it's silly to chastise Obama as if he was the one that killed the sharks himself. I'd think the same way even if he had the fin soup, which, I gather, he didn't even do that much. Manufactured controversies like this do not help any cause, it just makes them seem like they're irrelevant.
 
X Factor said:
I'm not an animal rights activist but I do have a soft spot in my heart for most animals. I didn't know really anything about shark "finning" until I read it here. If it's true, that the fins are taken and the rest discarded, I can't say I'd care much for that practice. All that being said, all Obama did was eat at a restaurant where shark fin soup was sold, and it's silly to chastise Obama as if he was the one that killed the sharks himself. I'd think the same way even if he had the fin soup, which, I gather, he didn't even do that much. Manufactured controversies like this do not help any cause, it just makes them seem like they're irrelevant.
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There's a whole "boy who cried wolf" aspect that many advocate organizations, especially animal rights organizations, can't seem to grasp.
 
Dr_Patrick said:
It's refreshing to see that none of the anti-Obama crowd are biting on this one and pretending to be animal rights activists or something in an effort to feign outrage. I sincerely do applaud that.
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Gonna fault the guy for going to a restaurant? Nope. As I said earlier, as an avid hunter and fisheman, I find the harvesting of sharks solely for their fins atrocious and downright disgusting. Is there some expectation that his staff should review the menu of every restaurant he eat at?

What find even more funny, where ARE the enviro-tards on this? Does he get a pass?
 
If this is about shark fin soup, I would stress that I believe that it's the shark that ended up in hot water. LOL.
 
Wake said:
I can see the truth in that.

Ostrich jerky is a bit rare, yet delicious.
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True, tastes similar to something between bald eagle and whooping crane. :mrgreen:
 
danarhea said:
If this is about shark fin soup, I would stress that I believe that it's the shark that ended up in hot water. LOL.
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Are you finished? (get it? finished :D)
 
jamesrage said:
Who the **** cares if he goes to a restaurant that serves shark fin soups.Those enviro-******s need to quit getting their vagina hurt over **** like this.
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I doubt most of them care that Obama ate there, either. They're just using this as an opportunity to advance a cause they believe in... bring on the faux-rage.
 
Ikari said:
I don't think there is much concern for mercury levels because even shark fins contain an abnormally large amount of mercury (tuna has a lot of mercury too...any major preditor is going to have high concentrations of mercury due to our pollution). Mostly they don't take it because the fins are the most expensive piece on the shark and you can store way more fins if you don't store the carcass as well. They'd make less money if they were to take the whole of the carcass over just harvesting the fins.

That being said, it's a pathetic practice and I for one won't encourage it. I'm not much of an animal right's activist or anything like that; but finning practices are idiotic at best and the devistation it can have on the shark population is a bit too much for my tastes.
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You didn't address the urine. When you open up a can of tuna, do you smell piss?
 
Dr_Patrick said:
It's refreshing to see that none of the anti-Obama crowd are biting on this one and pretending to be animal rights activists or something in an effort to feign outrage. I sincerely do applaud that.
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Well, Obama didn't order shark fin. He had dim sum, something I love to get at local outdoor markets from time to time. Yummy.

As for shark fin, it is a horrible practice and had Obama actually ordered shark fin, I would have been very critical of him for it. In this case, any criticism of President Obama is unwarranted.
 
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