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Issue of the day: Shark hunting continues
Shark fin business: A trader removes a fin from a shark at Samudera Lampulo Fishing Port in Banda Aceh, after fishermen unloaded a catch on April 20
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span class="inline inline-center">Shark fin business: A trader removes a fin from a shark at Samudera Lampulo Fishing Port in Banda Aceh, after fishermen unloaded a catch on April 20. Antara/Ampelsa
April 21, Online
Shark hunting by local fishermen in Aceh waters continues to occur although the activity has sparked strong criticism from environmentalists. Shark fins have a high economic value, with prices around Rp 2 million (US$172) per kilogram.
Your comments:
Human beings are the greedy creation of God. Only humans take more than they need in life. Poor fish!
Yamin Ode Mukmin
Where is the control by the government up there?
Don't blame the fishermen, they don't know what to do to make a living. They do something like that because they believe they will make a lot of money for their family. Some of the fishermen are poor and uneducated people and they risk everything so their families can eat.
They are simply unskilled, hard-working fishermen. I believe if someone taught them responsible fishing practices they would not do such a thing.
Shiroan Duchan
Fishing sharks toward extinction in a country where fisheries are unmonitored and unregulated.
Protecting sharks and rays should be a priority of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.
But this ministry, which employs mostly incompetent people, has no understanding of the issues at stake and it has no idea of the critical state of Indonesian fish stocks.
Sabar P.
It's very simple where these shark fins are concerned. Eskimos are allowed to hunt seals and even polar bears because their livelihood depends on it and it is their tradition. Indonesians do not normally eat shark fins and it comes only as a bonus.
When they do occasionally catch a shark, especially a large one, the whole village rejoices because every part of the shark is consumed and everybody gets a bit of it! Others do not do that; they just slice the fins off and dump the poor animal back into the ocean.
Most of the time, it's unsustainable and wasteful.
In Indonesia we do not do things like that until somebody comes along and teaches these poor folk how to fish with long lines stretching kilometers and harvest only the fins.
Pauloh
You can find shark meat in fish markets in western countries and mid to upscale grocery stores.
Their fishermen are trained to process it properly after the catch because a shark needs to be immediately bled to eliminate the urine from its blood.
Asian nations on the other hand only take the fins and leave the meat to rot. Not sure if they just don't realize how to process it or if they just don't care because they see a price tag on the fins only.
We could have a large shark-meat market in Asia if only people were educated on its usage and the value of the entire fish.
X Simaging
As long as the government is too afraid to uphold the laws of the country in Aceh, people will do whatever they want.
Aceh has become a frightening, lawless moral wasteland and should be cut off from the rest of Indonesia. The problem is that Aceh would immediately be funded by Islamic extremists.
Charles Jarret
If we, humans, could share the agonizing and severe pain of the dying sharks after losing their fins, we would stop consuming shark fin soup in fancy restaurants and this would in turn stop the killing of sharks. If the demand stops, the killing will stop too.
Robby Kaware
