Month: November 2018

1. Grimes, Nathaniel. “Institutions in the Shark Fin Market: Externalities and Incentives.” Review of Business, vol. 38, no. 2, July 2018, pp. 44–60. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=129631257&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Nathaniel Grimes’ study analyzes the role institutions have in shaping incentives within the shark fin market. The text combines literature findings of fisheries economics, shark biology, and institutional economics to provide an argument that institutions were fundamental in establishing the market. This text is useful to my research because it provides knowledge of the institutions in the shark fin market and how they are operated.

2. Eilperin, Juliet. “Shark’s Fin Soup, China, and the GDP: Why Protecting Sharks Is Good for the Economy.” Slate Magazine, The Slate Group, 30 June 2011, slate.com/technology/2011/06/shark-s-fin-soup-china-and-the-gdp-why-protecting-sharks-is-good-for-the-economy.html.

This article provides knowledge on the history of how China’s shark economics came to be and how it is continuously growing. They also explain how the growing of economic power worldwide influences the targeting of sharks as well. Capitalism also plays a part in trading sharks due to demands of delicacy products such as the popular sharks fin soup, and other products around the world.

3. Dell’Apa, Andrea, et al. “The Influence of Culture on the International Management of Shark Finning.” Environmental Management, vol. 54, no. 2, Aug. 2014, pp. 151–161. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00267-014-0291-1.

The main driver of shark fin exploitation is linked to the cultural beliefs in traditional Chinese culture. This paper investigates the relation between the cultural significance of sharks in traditional Chinese and Hawaiian cultures, as how specific differences in cultural beliefs can influence an individual’s attitudes towards shark finning. Alternative management strategies for commercial fishers to maintain self-sustainability are also provided.

4. Greentumble Editorial Group. “How Does Shark Finning Affect the Ecosystem?” Greentumble, 24 March 2017, greentumble.com/how-does-shark-finning-affect-the-ecosystem/.

This article reveals why sharks are important in our ecosystem and the types of roles they play in keeping our oceans balanced. Through this article, the negative effects of shark finning and the actions that could be performed to stop this inhumane practice are also suggested. This article is helpful in my research due to its statistics and scientific facts which focuses on different categories

In an era where meeting the needs for consumers to gain profit is more important than protecting the planet that we live on, shark finning has become a significant global situation. Not only are sharks killed by the inhumane practice of finning , but their population is also rapidly decreasing through bycatch. In my research paper, I will explore the following topics of how the economy influences shark finning and how this practice further affects the ecosystem. To explore these issues, I will focus on one of the main reasons of shark finning, which is because of the consumers’ greed and the ways they benefit from destroying our planet. Through their actions of shark finning, an immense consequence would be the destruction of the ecosystem, which further increases the pace of climate change. This paper will provide knowledge of how important sharks are to our ecosystem and the types of damage humans do by disrupting the ocean’s natural balance.

CLOSE READING II

The citizens of the Sundarbans in ‘The Hungry Tide’ sees animals differently than how Piya does. They see animals as spiritual and meaningful beings from their beliefs of the local legend Bon Bibi. In this legend, the tiger is the dangerous villain due to its history of attacking and killing people. The villagers sees tigers as deadly animals that will kill upon first sight. When the villagers have trapped a tiger in a livestock pen, they want to kill the animal right away and take revenge because of the harm and fear it has caused the village. Piya sees this situation in a completely different point of view and wants to protect the tiger because of her passion to protect wildlife in their natural habitat and especially tigers since “there are more tigers living in America, in captivity, than there are in all of India”. To her, she sees the tiger as a trapped and helpless animal while the villagers see it as a monster that has been terrorizing their village and killing their people. Piya not being able to bear seeing the tiger helpless and in pain, she begs Kanai to do something and he tells her there is nothing they can do since the mob is so big and traditional villagers will not listen to an outsider. Because Kanai will not help her, she turns to Fokir, who she thought would understand her view as seeing this animal as a creature that needs to be helped and preserved, but to her surprise, she sees Fokir actually sharpening a bamboo pole and getting ready to attack the animal. This moment completely changed the way Piya saw Fokir. As Fokir is always in the rivers all the time to fish and see other animals along the way, Piya thought that he would have empathy towards animals and would have developed a connection with them just as Piya had with her passion towards marine animals, but she was wrong. Fokir sees animals as just that, they are food to eat or animals to kill if they are terrorizing villages. To Piya, seeing Fokir supporting the villagers’ intent to kill the tiger was just as horrifying as their motive.

CLOSE READING

The passage in ‘The Hungry Tide’ where Piya and the fishermen come across a pod of dolphins displays the harmonic interaction between humans and animals. In this scene, the dolphins are looking for food while the fishermen were also looking for a catch. A fisherman drums against his boat and rattles metal weights to create sounds that catches the dolphins’ attention and they begin to prompt up from the water. The dolphins then begin to circle together to drive a school of fish towards the boat, allowing to fishermen to lower their nets at the perfect time to catch the fish while the dolphins get a meal of their own. Piya was in awe because she had only witnessed a similar interaction once before in all her time of attending expeditions.

This scene is inspiring because in a place such as the Sundarbans where humans are in constant fear of killer animals, such as the tigers and crocodiles, there are also animals which mean no harm. Humans and these animals can actually benefit from each other, like the dolphins driving the fish towards the fishermen’s boat. The people living in these areas are so accustomed to thinking of wild animals as dangerous, that they do not know of the other peaceful animals that exist. People would never have thought that animals and humans can work in harmony because they believe that wild animals have only one thing in mind, which is to kill and eat. They have grown to believe that animals are dangerous and this type of negative impression towards animals have become an imprinted belief, something that will not change unless if they experience it themselves.

Peaceful interactions between humans beings and animals in the wild are remarkable and truly a gift of nature. Animals do approach humans in the wild but usually because they are curious, but working together in harmony is not a common occasion and in this case, “there was truly no limit, it seemed, to the cetacean gift for springing surprises” (140).