Whaling and Shark Finning

Whaling, in a nutshell, is where people hunt whales for meat and oil.

Especially meat, nowadays.

In the '30s 50,000 whales were killed each year.

O.O

What?!

Horrible.

Aahh!

Lovely - NOT.

Enjoyable - I don't think.

How could anyone kill one of these amazing creatures?

Yet, they do.

The people on top of that boat fire fire at the whale, with a harpoon.

This is a modern whale harpoon:

  This is an old one:

Then the whale is killed - in agony.

The meat is used for...well...food. Kind of obvious ^.^
The blubber can be used for lanterns, candles, leather, soap and cosmetics. 
Bleehhhh... Who would want to put whale fat/oil on their face?

It's just horrible.

Quick fact: whaling is banned in Oklahoma - they don't have whales! They are land-locked!

Crazy or what?

---

Now, shark finning is where people hunt sharks, chop off their dorsal fin, and just leave the rest of the poor shark to moulder in a dustbin. 

Yes, you heard right.

They kill these,

 

Just to get these:

The fins are used in shark fin soup.

It's a delicacy in China - the main region where they do this dreadful crime.

And do you know how many shark fins are taken?

More than that. Those guys are cleaning them to take to the shops and sell. Ugh.

They kill a shark, chop off the fin, and bin the rest.

Or, even worse, they grab a shark, chop off the fin, and leave it to die in the ocean, in a horrible pain. 

If you want to know why people just take the shark fins, it's because they're extremely expensive to buy.

$400 USD per kilogram.

A lot of money.

Scientists think that around 70 million sharks a year are "harvested". D:

Right, well, I hope this has taught you something!
(Sorry if I sound too much like a teacher here...)