The charities and organisations help and make us aware. But this barbarity must be driven to an effective end, the organisations who publicly say 'This is terrible and it must end' are on the right track but its only going to have a limited effect, at best perhaps reducing the shark killing quota(due to Westerners saying no!) or at worst driving the price of shark fin down due to a possible surplus of shark fins (due to the falling interest from Western tourists etc)in turn causing a spike in popularity in the Asian countries restaurants with the affordability. What I'm saying is there is no easy answer to this nightmare of a problem with the environmentalist approach.
One effective way of getting it into the shark fin consumers thick skulls (short of bashing them with a mallet!) is for our(Western) and their (asian) governments to start kicking some serious *** instead of talking about it.
I'm talking a combined approach from all respective anti-shark fin countries i.e all foreign ambassidors getting together and being more direct and agressive in how they get the message across to these Asian contries. Taking it one offending country at a time with a focused effort aggressive diplomacy i.e veiled threats, possible sanctions etc. and all that. Other 'offending' countries would then see their next on the list and then (at best) take steps to sort the mess out. This is one way but its a long shot getting all that to work correctly and without screwing up relations.
The second definitive way to end the problem quickly is for the Asian countrys consumers to change their eating ways. And this almost impossible task can only come from within that country itself, from its leaders, politicians, holy men, community leaders etc. These ordinary asian folk who eat the sharks don't even realise what an environmental disaster this problem is. To those many that perhaps do they either don't care, or believe its exagerrated. What we many Westerners don't realise is that sadly when we start telling them its wrong and everything they become stubborn and angry at us telling them how to run their country.
To sum all that rhetoric I just spewed out the shark fin problem can only come from within not without, the governments need to start taking it more seriously and of course the charities need to be working even harder than ever to acheive victory. These three things are the keys to unlocking the trap. One key starts, a second key finishes, and the third opens the door.
