Fiji Tourism joins Air Pacific's clandestine Shark Fin Trafficking Party

Yippee - a marvelous coup for Fiji's image overseas.

Well done to the originators of the new Fiji tourism branding of "where happiness finds you".

Just one question - did anyone bother asking the Fiji regime not to *fin**%^ it up ?!

Shark finning is a brutal practice. A shark is caught, pulled onboard a boat, its fins are cut off, and the still-living shark is tossed back overboard to drown or bleed to death. The wasteful, inhumane practice is done to satisfy a demand for shark fins, which can fetch as much as $300 per pound. The meat, on the other hand, is far less valuable, so fishermen toss it overboard to save space for more fins.

Not only is it an intensely wasteful and harmful practice, it's also essentially pointless since shark fins have no nutritional or medicinal value. And they're practically flavorless. Yet, finning continues, to the point that these animals so vital to the ecological balance of our oceans are about to be wiped out completely.

More information here.