Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Carl Icahn and the Sharks

From Dealbook:

About a month and a half ago, Carl Icahn and I went to dinner at Tse Yang, an upscale Chinese restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. Mr. Icahn, the corporate raider turned activist investor, came blustering through the dimly lit restaurant about 20 minutes late, grabbed one of the waiters — they all know him — and ordered a martini. ...

It is tough being the Superman of Shareholders, rescuing investors from villainous corporate boards. Or at least that’s the way Mr. Icahn, who is 72, sees himself these days.

“It’s awful the way all these entrenched boards act,” he grumbled in his raspy voice as he slurped shark fin soup. “Someone’s got to stand up and say something. That’s what I do. And maybe I’ll make a little money at it.”

Hmmm. Wouldn’t it be fun if PETA hopped into Icahn’s fights with Yahoo et al.? After all, as Wikipedia tells us:

According to wildlife conservationists, much of the trade in sharks’ fins is derived from fins cut from living sharks; this process is called finning. Because shark meat is worth much less, the finless and often still-living sharks are thrown back into the sea to make room on board the ship for more of the valuable fins. When returned to the ocean, the finless sharks, unable to move, either die from suffocation or are consumed by other sharks or animals.

... The first real-data study of sharks harvested for their valuable fins estimates that between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year worldwide, three times higher than was reported originally by the United Nations, according to a paper published as the cover story in the October 2006 edition of Ecology Letters.

Finning of living sharks on an industrial scale does occur and has been witnessed and photographed ....

Finning is vigorously opposed by animal welfare groups; both on moral grounds and also because it is listed as one of the causes for the rapid decline of global shark populations. On the IUCN red list there are 39 species of elasmobranches (sharks and rays) listed as threatened species (Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable). The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lists three sharks in Appendix II: the basking shark, the great white shark and the whale shark. Appendix II lists those species that are not in danger of extinction, but which require controls on international trade to maintain their populations. It is estimated that 10–100 million sharks are slaughtered each year for their fins, with a median figure of 38 million. The industry is valued at US$1.2 billion; because of the lucrative profits, there are allegations of links to organized crime.

Maybe he should stick to foie gras?