Hi,
If I can just share a bit of what I think......
Firstly, shark's fin is not totally without nutrition.
Check out this link:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/01/20/urbananimal.DTLIt has protein and the gelatin can help cartilage growth. And in traditional Chinese Medicine, it is classified as a tonic.
But, I think the issue is not whether it's nutritious or not, contain high mercury or not, and etc like that. It's more because they are cruelly finned and also there's a concern they can be endangered.
Right?
On the first part, cruelty,
I think all animals are not supposed to get killed by us for food. Since we are a thinking and feeling creature. We can think of ways to meet our needs without killing. For example, organ farming. With a little more research, we can just breed chicken legs or chicken wings without having to breed one whole chicken and then kill it to take the leg and wings.
Because, if u think about it, all animals are the same, not just sharks are special. Chickens, cows, turkeys, pigs are being bred by the millions and killed by millions each year. What's the difference with finning? Their methods can be less cruel or more cruel but it's still cruel. And I can think of other methods of more cruel ones like Kobe Beef (feed cows with beer) and Goose Liver (bloat the goose's liver). But it's all the same. They are cruel. Whether u slit a chicken neck and make him die in 10 seconds or fin a shark and throw him back in the sea, there is very little comfort about less cruel or more cruel method.
If u care about sharks, what about chickens? what about cows?
If u become a vegetarian, what's the difference u can make to the millions of chickens still demanded by millions of chicken eaters?
So, if u think about it, there has to be a better way of farming, not by changing our eating behaviour. Changing world's eating behaviour might take generations or never work. There has to be a technological breakthrough first, like organ farming, then we can all stop killing animals without having to change eating behaviour.
Hope some of u can be inspired if u really love animals. If u are a bio student, maybe u can research tissue farming and the like. In 20 years maybe we can sit down in a restaurant labelled 'from artificial farming' and in 100 years maybe we all won't be killing any animals for food at all. Instead of....like now....some people urge others to be vegetarians, to love animals.....but where is the technological solution?
~`