Dear Hawaii, You Rock!

Shout out to the US State of Hawaii for being the first to ban shark finning. Shark finning is the poster child for how short-sighted wastefulness can easily ruin whole fisheries by killing off important top-predators and thereby toppling nature's balance.

Shark finners slice off a shark's fins and throw the dead or dying shark carcass back into the ocean. Millions of sharks are killed this way each year but without the bodies, it's hard to determine species, so we are likely overfishing the ocean's key top-predators as we speak. The fins are used for soup, yes, soup, a big delicacy especially in China and Hong Kong.

Here's a brief story about Hawaii's efforts in the local Hawaiian Star Advertiser:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/woodcraft/20100709_Ban_on_shark-finning_brings_Hawaii_international_notice.html