Would you pay $100 for a bowl of soup? Many affluent people are ready to put that money down for a bowl of shark-fin soup.
It’s a delicacy in parts of Asia and has resulted in unbelievable cruelty to the creatures. The Humane Society of the U.S. estimates that up to 73 million sharks have their fins cut off for the soup leaving them to die of blood loss, shock, or inability to swim away from predators. The society has asked a New Hampshire legislator to sponsor a bill banning possession of the fins. And Lindsay Hamrick, the society’s state director, says that while the harvesting is banned in U.S. waters, it is not in international waters.
New Hampshire’s bill would make it illegal to possess the fins to eliminate the possibility of them being imported through the state. Recently, a group of children from the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at Stratham traveled to Concord to testify in favor of the bill. Paula Parisi, who directs the Stratham facility’s humane education programs, spoke to Roger Wood InDepth about the kids in the Starfish program who felt strongly enough to face the Legislature on the issue.