Aquarium/Marine related… cuz, you know, that’s my field. :p

I just want to bring attention to a couple of news items that have been going around. The first one is more for fun, the second, for your pity and anger.

Mercedes-Benz designs new diesel concept car with an aerodynamic design based on the biology of a boxfish. Check out the pictures there with the pictures of the baby boxfish I have here. OK, so maybe bad example. Check this article out instead, it has great pics of the car and the fish, so you get a better idea of what the hell they’re talking about. I think the funniest thing of all is that I have always looked at boxfish as an inefficient swimmer, struggling to get anywhere in the ocean. I guess I was totally off on that one.

I’ve been following the whole Shark fin soup thing that Disney sunk themselves in. They were seriously planning on offering shark fin soup for catering events at the new Hong Kong Park that is set to open really soon. As you can imagine, people got pissed. The entire Aquarium was in an uproar. To make things worse, instead of getting them off the menu, “Disneyland Hong Kong was responding to criticism from environmentalists of its plans to serve shark’s fin soup at the park. Disney said it would hand out leaflets to people booking banquets, explaining the cruelty of shark fishing, the BBC reported.” 0_0

So then they back down and state that they will remove the soup from their menu – but get this – will serve it on request. This article pretty much sums it for me:
`It’s like saying, `I have principles, but if you give me a lot of money I can break them.’ The word for it is `prostitution.’

Yes, it is a cultural practice, but you know what? So is eating caguama, which just so happens to be SEA TURTLE. It is an illegal practice now since all the sea turtles of the world are endangered, but it still happens, and I am just as disgusted by it as I am by shark fin soup. Not because of the actual eating of the flesh/cartilage of said animals, but because of the complete disregard they have for them. Yes, I eat meat. Yes, I eat seafood. But I try my best to be smart about what I am eating and where it comes from. You can’t always, but I try. I’ve even got a handy Seafood Watch card in my purse. When it is something this huge, when everyone is telling you that you can’t keep doing that because those animals are in danger of dissapearing, that your grandkids may never see a live specimen because you ate it at so-and-so’s wedding, well, that disgusts me.

And here I wanted to go to Disneyland’s 50th. pfft.