sharks-fin or shark-sin?

i was attending my cousin's wedding at the marriot hotel just now. as usual, i was very interested in what's for dinner! although it's very predictable that sharksfin will be on the menu, i was still very disappointed when i actually see it. this prized asian delicacy is prepared by adding boiled sharksfin to a thick broth. sharksfin is very similar to the tissue that is found in our hair and fingernails, people who consume sharksfin soup are actually paying a lot of money for a bowl of chicken soup with hair! sharks are caught and their fins sliced off, the still-living sharks are then thrown back into the water. without their fins, sharks cannot swim, and they soon drown. just imagine, a fish drowned to death, how ironic can it get?!

i whispered to my mum who was sitting beside me that i swear i will not serve sharksfin on my wedding night! (if it ever comes) she said to me: "aiyah..chinese are like that, must have 'face'...so the animals suffer lah, i also think we should not eat sharksfin!" ...err..but later when sharksfin soup was served she ate it anyway.. "the shark die already, if you don't eat it, then the shark died for nothing you know?" ...ok lah, to a certain extent, she is correct. but the broader picture is: when the buying STOPS, the killing can too.