That and because they're considered a pest by fishing boats. Humans kill 100 Million Sharks a year, and we sure as heck aren't eating that many fins. If we did there would be a massive mercury epidemic causing infant deformity, dementia, organ failure, and loss of fertility.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's not even 0.1% of the total fish we kill every year. Granted, that's just sheer numbers, not weight

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Weird flex but okay

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My point being we sure as heck could be eating that many fins

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That would be a huge mistake, sharks are filled with Mercury.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Delicious mercury.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sharks hunt smaller predatory fish, which hunt for the same fish as humans. By killing sharks the fishermen are actually increasing their competition.

[–] tastysnacks@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Huh? what are these smaller predatory fish that we don't eat?

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 3 points 10 months ago

smaller sharks for instance.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 2 points 10 months ago

And meanwhile there have been 108 attacks on humans in 2022

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A family member once had to resort to traditional chinese medicine so solve an issue - and it acctually worked, I will admit upfront - but I kept hearing how shark cartilage capsules was the best to reinforce joints and one day I just snapped and replied along the lines of "by that same logic, to obtain insulin we should be grinding pig pancreas into pills for insulin".

[–] aluminiumsandworm@kbin.social 22 points 10 months ago

we used to use cow pancreas to get insulin actually. fortunately bioreactors exist and some clever people figured out how to gmo bacteria to make insulin

[–] pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh is THAT what that's about

[–] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Is a species being poached to extinction? If so, it's probably because there's some sort of fertility/virility "medicine" derived from it that Asian men will pay insane money for. -tiger -rhino -civet -pangolon -shark

[–] 1847953620@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I'm sexually attracted to shark fins, so they certainly cause boners for me.