Now and then i think it's fine to get self-serious, and even to preach a little.

If anyone needs anymore convincing about how seriously threatened some animals are this video shows a dolphin massacre that occurred in Japan.

Great strip with a much needed lesson.

What did those poor creatures ever do to you? Too bad they're not furry sharks like Polar Bears. Then everyone would all up into saving them.

Tuna is heading towards total extinction due to overfishing; might as well try to save something.

I was thinking about Shark Fin soup, and about the much reported practice of throwing the sharks back into the water, to die.

It occured to me, that the throwing of the doomed shark back into the water is actually much more environmentally friendly than it might seem. The shark, tossed back into the water, will undoubtedly die, and provide sustinence for a plethora of other sea life. Much of the deep sea life depends on the sunken corpses of large fish.

It would be much more problematic if the shark were taken and cut into steaks to be consumed by humans. Then the human feces produced would do little to benefit the ocean habitat.

Is the practice brutal, and cruel to the animals? Most likely.

I mean, is drowning a worse death than what fishermen do to most fish? I can't really speak to that. I've never suffocated. I'm not a fish. I don't even know how most fish actually die in commercial fishing - I presume they die from frost, or suffocation from being out of water.

I'm not suggesting that Carol is wrong here, just mentioning that we often need to fully examine practices we consider brutal and/or wasteful.

Geez..it is more about how Sharks are being killed to extinction, not the ponderance if it hurts when they die.