It is expensive, delicate and coveted. Shark fin soup probably dates back to the Sung Dynasty that existed from 960 to 1279.
The main ingredients are shark fins and broth. Millions of sharks are caught every year by long liners. Long liners are the boats that go far out in the ocean and run lines with thousands of hooks that may go out several kilometers.
Sharks are caught mostly for their valuable fins and the thrown back alive into the water, fins removed, to bleed to death or drown because they can no longer swim.
This practice is called finning. The fins are widely used in Asia as a soup ingredient and as a pharmaceutical cure-all. The shark fin soup made with only shark fins is in fact relatively tasteless. Other ingredients like mushroom and chicken broth are added to give it flavor.
Sharks have been around for more than 400 million years.
Main ingredient in shark fin soup
