Shark fin soup is a traditional Formosan dish aerial made from the gristle found inside the fins of sharks . The uprise requirement for shark 5 is one of the main driver of the ball-shaped declination in shark populations . One blogger wondered how much soup you’re able to make from the fin of a individual megalodon , so he did the math .
Over atSouthern Fried Science , David Shiffman writes that explaining his calculations “ can severalise us a band about one of the most of import sea conservation issues facing the universe today . ”
Above : Reconstructed megalodon jaw , National Aquarium ( Source ) .
The Chinese delicacy is made from something called ceratotrichia , small structures in the fins ’ gristle which , according to Shiffman , have “ no taste , no odour , and no nutritionary note value . ” They just add grain to the final stunner .
Growing demand for shark fin soup as a result of China ’s economic boom is one of the main driversof the global overfishing of sharks . Is it sometimes , but not always , consociate with the wasteful and inhumane fishing exercise known as “ shark finning . ”Sometimes the soup is made withthe 5 of Threatened or Endangered species of shark that are n’t conjecture to be caught . As the shark fin deal is global , and large voice of it are unsustainable and ill regulate , it is an domain of business for sea preservation advocates .
According to his maths , a single serving of the soup is made using just .75 ounces of dried shark fins . Carcharocles megalodon , commonly known as the megalodon , was probably the largest shark that even swim our planet ’s oceans . ( Yes , that judgment of conviction is written intentionally in the retiring tense , because despite what they tell you on TV , it is long extinct . )
So the fins of one shark can be used for more than one bowl of soup .
If a typical adult megalodon would weigh 50 metric tons , and on average 3 % of a shark ’s mass is fins , then we can estimate that a typical adult megalodon would have roughly 1.5 metric net ton of Phoebe .
Taking that selective information into account :
If a typical adult megalodon has 1.5 metrical stacks ( 1,500 kilogram ) of louver , and fin sell for $ 400 a kg , then the fin of an adult megalodon could be sold for a total of $ 600,000 . If it takes three quarter of an snow leopard of dry shark five to make one roll of shark fin soup , then with 1.5 measured short ton ( 52,910 ounces ) of shark fin , you could make 70,456 bowls of shark fin soup .
In other word , there is more than enough soup from the fins of a single megalodon to feed in everyone in Greenland , and still have some left over .
The maximum possible sizing of megalodon ( grey ) , liken with a conservative estimate for its size ( red ) , a whale shark ( purpleness ) , a capital white shark ( green ) , and a human . ( author )
It ’s all a fun act of nerdery , but the problems of shark finning and the overfishing of shark stocks are quite actual . Shiffman point out that if the fin of a single megalodon could net some $ 600,000 , commercial-grade shark fishermen would apace drive it into becoming endangered and possibly to extinction . “ And if the conjectural overfishing of a species that has been extinct for millions of yr has you as upset as it has me , ” he says , “ you should learn more about the literal overfishing of shark metal money that are still around … at least for now . ”
interpret the whole post atSouthern Fried Science .
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