社會話題探討:關於食用魚翅(2)

Excuse me waiter, there's a shark in my soup

The richer societies get, the more finicky they tend to become. Many (including myself) waste half the animal they have had killed on their behalf, refusing to consume its organs, intestines, brain and so on. These parts are often eaten, and sometimes prized, in non-western societies, particularly in Asia. In their willingness to consume almost all the animal, both China and Japan score far better than most western countries.

Surely, then, one can't object to eating shark fin? Yet one can and one should. The reasons are to do with conservation and our broader ecosystem. Some species of shark have been depleted by 70 per cent and a few, such as smooth hammerhead, bull sharks and tiger sharks, by 90 per cent or more. Sharks are the ocean's top predators. Their absence causes havoc. Off the east coast of America, sharks used to eat bottom-feeding rays. With shark numbers massively depleted, the rays have had a field day devouring scallops, clams and oysters, rapidly reducing stocks.

Once shark fins are dried and in jars, it is all but impossible to tell what kind of shark they came from or whether they were finned. At one store in the Sheung Wan district of Hong Kong, a city where half the world's shark fin is traded, a salesman admits he has no idea whether the fins come from endangered species. His shop does not sell shark meat, and he says it could be true that the carcase is simply tossed into the sea. As well as the cruelty, there is also the incredible waste. The average shark stretches to about 10 bowls of soup.

Certainly, shark fin is traditional. As one writer points out, to ask people to stop eating it is the equivalent of suggesting Americans give up turkey for Thanksgiving. There is doubtless a case for banning other types of food, such as some types of caviar and some species of whale. But cultures are not immutable. Traditions change, especially when they are unsustainable.

Fortunately, many of the most prominent campaigners against shark fin are Chinese, with Yao Ming, the recently retired basketball sensation, among the most passionate. In Hong Kong, where shark fin used to be de rigueur at Cantonese banquets, many young people refuse to eat it. Besides, sharks have less cachet now they are siphoned from the oceans on an industrial scale.

In Canada, more than a few ethnic Chinese couples have made a show of not serving shark fin at their wedding. Judy Lao recently told the Vancouver Province why she didn't have it at her reception. "We don't really care, our friends don't care, and shark fin has no nutritional value anyway," she said. "So why should we serve it?" Why indeed.

社會越是富有，往往就會變得越挑剔。許多人（包括我在內）會浪費掉因爲他們而被殺死的動物的一半，我們拒絕食用它們的器官、腸子和腦子等等部位。但在西方之外的社會、尤其是亞洲，人們通常是吃這些的，而且有時還會將其視若珍品。就吃下動物所有部位的意願而言，中國和日本要遠遠排在大多數西方國家的前面。

這麼說來，想必我們不能反對吃魚翅了？不，我們可以反對，而且也應當反對。因爲這關係到環境保護以及更廣泛生態系統的保護。一些種類的鯊魚數量已減少了70%，少數幾個種類的數量減少了90%，例如平雙髻鯊、牛鯊和 虎鯊。鯊魚是位於海洋食物鏈最頂端的捕食者。若沒有它們，生態系統會發生混亂。在美國東海岸附近，鯊魚通 常以在水底覓食的魟魚爲食。由於鯊魚數量急劇減少，魟魚就會趁機吃掉很多扇貝、蛤蜊和牡蠣，使這些物種的 數量迅速減少。

鯊魚的鰭一旦被曬乾並放入罐裏，便幾乎無可判斷它們來自哪種鯊魚，或者是否是被割下來的。在魚翅交易量佔 全球一半的香港，上環區一家商店的一位銷售人員坦承，他不清楚店裏的魚翅是否來自瀕危鯊魚。他的店裏不賣 鯊魚肉，並且他表示，鯊魚的屍體被直接拋回海里可能是真事。豈止是殘忍，這也是一種巨大的浪費。平均每條鯊魚只能加工出大約10碗魚翅湯。

不錯，魚翅是一種傳統食物。正如一位作家所指出的那樣，要求人們不吃魚翅就好比讓美國人過感恩節時不要吃火雞。我們無疑有理由禁止食用其它食物，比如某類魚子醬和某些種類的鯨。但文化也不是一成不變的。傳統會發生變化，尤其是當它們難以爲繼的時候。

值得慶幸的是，在反對吃魚翅的最著名活動人士之中，許多都是中國人，比如近期退役的籃球明星姚明，就是行動最積極的人士之一。在香港，魚翅曾是粵宴上的必備菜餚，但如今許多青年人拒絕食用魚翅。此外，在捕殺鯊魚實現工業化規模的今天，魚翅的身價已大不如前。

在加拿大，許多對華裔夫婦已做出表率，在婚宴上不供應魚翅。Judy Lao最近向《溫哥華省報(Vancouver
Province)解釋了，爲什麼她的婚宴沒有上魚翅。“我們並不介意這些，我們的朋友也不介意，再說魚翅根本也沒有什麼營養價值，”她表示。“所以，我們爲什麼要上魚翅呢？”確實，這有什麼必要呢？