Gordon Ramsay has already been assaulted for documenting the shark fin industry. Daniel Kessler wrote that he was showered with gasoline and held at gunpoint in Costa Rica after making his way onto a tiny fishing vessel and taping the illegal trafficking of shark fins. And now you can see why those close to the industry don't want the disparaging footage seen by the general public.
When Gordon Ramsay first showed up in a Taiwanese restaurant to sample shark fin soup you couldn't help but be disgusted. He watched the soup's long, arduous preparation, mostly based around a slow-cooked broth, and then the addition of the infamous fin. But a few minutes later the real motivation behind the clip surfaced--Ramsay was scheming to get behind closed doors so that viewers could see the painful brutality behind shark fin soup. It's a dish that is the main cause behind an industry that claims between 26 million and 73 million sharks annually, according to Science News.
After tasting shark fin soup, a 90 pound per bowl and startlingly tasteless broth, Ramsay went to a nearby port and witnessed a huge endangered hammerhead knifed to death for its fins and then left to bleed to death, its meat worth nothing to fisherman. It's like cutting a tiger's arms off in the Savannah and then leaving it to bleed to death, one anti-shark finer explains.
In the video, Ramsay shows the tiny fishing vessel in Costa Rica, which later caused the initial assault. While the boat was small and seemed innocent enough, its fishing methods were hugely unsustainable, with multiple hooks dangling from the boat. The fishermen would catch a shark, remove its fins, and then use the remainder of its body for bait to catch more sharks.
In the end, Ramsay uses footage of the video to convince five of the top Chinese restaurants in London to stop serving shark fin soup and display a sign outlining why they did.
The video isn't easy to swallow, in fact, it's hard not to look away, but if you're unclear as to what shark fin soup is and the sheer terror it causes a severely declining species, it's worth a watch.
