Shark Fin Soup

Donnie was making his usual rounds about the reef, scanning the area for good hiding spots he might check out tonight for some food. He was hungry. The water seemed warmer and the food more scarce as of late, but he could only live in the ocean, so he had to make do with what he had. His usual diet of squid and swordfish had been diminished to sea turtle scraps and sometimes other sharks, but hey, it's eat or be eaten.

He had started seeing more shark carcasses around; lying at the bottom of the sea floor with no fins. It was unsettling to say the least. Donnie didn't understand it. He had seen plenty of other sharks and fish and whatever else caught in fishing nets or other garbage that floated their way, but this was different. Lucky for him, being a mako shark meant he was the fastest shark and one of the fastest fish on the planet. He had not befallen whatever fate these finless sharks had.

One day, Donnie saw something he wished he hadn't. A fuzzy shadow from above became larger and clearer until it landed on the sea floor. A mako shark, just like him, lay there, helpless. Finless. Of course he didn't know this shark. Mako sharks were mostly solitary creatures and highly migratory and spent most of their life traveling in search of a food or a mate.

Donnie looked into the eyes of his fellow shark and saw the fear and despair in his eyes. Struggling to swim, he lie there, thrashing back and forth, but he could not move. He fought until he was motionless. Donnie watched the entire scene play out in horror. He watched this shark, who was just like him, suffer and die slowly and painfully for what felt like an eternity. Donnie did not know what happened to him, but he prayed he would not succumb to the same death.

Usually quick on the move, Donnie stayed around the mako shark carcass for a while, watching it decay. He was hungry, starving even. He hadn’t found anything worth eating anywhere nearby and he seemed drawn to this dead mirror-version of himself. Donnie couldn’t do it. He could not eat another shark just like himself. It felt wrong, almost cannibalistic. Still, he had to survive.

Not soon after, Donnie found himself hesitantly picking at the rotten remains of a fellow mako shark. With clouded eyes, he felt his teeth sink into the soft decaying flesh just like his own. Donnie choked down as much as he could and quickly moved away. He felt ashamed and guilty of what he had done. It was different than the other sharks; it was like he was eating himself.

A few weeks later, Donnie found himself hoisted above the surface of the ocean and tossed into a vessel. A second later, he felt searing pain coming from his fins. When he looked forward, he saw piles of shark fins. He abruptly was tossed overboard and back in the ocean. Except this time he didn’t swim. He sank. Donnie thrashed about, desperately trying to swim. He only sank. He looked as far as he could and saw blood coming out of deep wounds where his fins should be. Suddenly, he realized what had happened. Someone up there was harvesting shark fins. Who could do this? Subject millions of animals to a fate like this? What had he done to deserve it? Donnie felt himself hit the sea floor. He thrashed and fought to move, to live, but he became weaker and weaker as he lost blood from his massive wounds. His movements slowed until he was barely breathing and only moving his eyes. Then he saw another shark nearby, eyeing Donnie, waiting for him to die.