i just saw something so gross!

i was watching 60 Minutes and they were doing a bit (no pun intended) on sharks and the new thing that is happening called shark tourism where people pay money to go out on a boat and get into a cage and go under water and watch the sharks swim around them. the thing is, where the sharks are available is where a lot of people swim and surf and since the sharks are being attracted to these areas the tour operators are putting the people who live there and use the sea every day in danger! that link above is an article on the show.

this show touched on a bunch of different shark topics and said that china is the biggest "collector" of sharks. i think they catch over a million a year for use in shark fin soup. here's the thing though. they don't use any other part of the shark but the fin. so when they catch these poor creatures they lasso them around the neck, drag them on the boat and then CUT OFF THEIR FINS while they are still alive and then dump them overboard to sink to the bottom and die. naturally 60 minutes had footage of this in operation and i had to hide my eyes. i almost cried and felt really sick after that.

this is just so horrible and saddens me that stuff like this is still going on. that humans have such low regard for other living beings. :(