| ||||
CNN
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Shark's fins are everywhere in Hong Kong -- they grace restaurant entrances to improve the Feng Shui, posters advertise them for women's health and they are marketed as a top choice for wedding banquets.
The dried food district of Sheung Wan is overflowing with them, for the territory -- where a bowl of shark's fin soup can fetch up to $100 -- is the world's largest consumer of what many people consider a delicacy.
Globally, over 100 million sharks, skates and rays are killed for food and beauty products each year in an unregulated industry, which has led to a drastically shrinking population.
"The evidence is clear we are killing too many sharks. There will be no shark fin soup in the future if we do not conserve now," says Victor Wu, a WildAid Shark Campaigner.
Concern is now mounting among shark experts and consumers alike that shark fishing and particularly fining is both unsustainable and often cruel.
Shark finning, which feeds the lucrative Asian market for shark's fin soup, involves slicing the fins off live sharks. They are then dropped back into the ocean to die a slow death.
A Hong Kong response
| Chef of the Floata Chiuchow restaurant, Joe Lau shows off an eight-course banquet that includes shark's fin soup | |
Hong Kong is at the heart of the debate, as environmentalists say the territory accounts for 50 to 70 percent of the global trade in shark fins.
However, the Hong Kong Shark's Fin Trade Merchant Association told local press that finning does not occur and that only whole sharks are caught and used, a fact disputed by environmental groups.
"Hong Kong could reform illegal shark fisheries by refusing to buy from them," EarthCare director, Wai Yee Ng said in a statement.
"But it seems the traders and authorities here only care about quick profits and do not care if shark fisheries worldwide collapse in the long run, " she reiterated.
With little still known about sharks in the wild, environmentalists are worried that a potentially sustainable fish resource could soon be eaten out of existance.
"We need to clarify that nobody is trying to ban the consumption of shark fin. What we are simply trying to do is highlight the wasteful and unmanaged activity of 'finning'," Charles Frew of Asiatic Marine Ltd. told CNN.
"Of 113 countries that fish for sharks, not one has an extensive shark fisheries management plan and very few keep any reliable catch data on sharks and species," he reiterated.
Government controversy
| A Thai woman walks past a large shark fin in Bangkok. Chinese restaurants across Asia serve the expensive delicacy | |
Recently controversy spread to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and its Web site, which invited the public to vote on whether shark's fin was a "must buy" item when visiting the territory.
Many environmentalists slammed the government for touting shark fins to the lucrative tourists from Southern China and fueling demand by the mere mention of the product.
Yet the HKTB told CNN it was "not specifically advocating the consumption of shark's fin but acknowledging the true fact that it is a popular product with visitors to Hong Kong."
"By identifying shark fin as a "must buy" item the HKTB encourages demand for shark fin -- without acknowledging the severe environmental impacts of this unsustainable trade, " Elizabeth Murdock of WildAid told CNN.
"At a point when more and more Asian people are saying no to shark fin soup, the HKTB has a unique opportunity to lead other nations in using sharks sustainably," she reiterated.
Environmental groups are now urging Hong Kong merchants to stop importing shark fin from unsustainable fisheries and from those countries that have not followed the United Nations shark fisheries management recommendations.
Surge in demand
Over the past 20 years the economic boom in Asia has caused a surge in demand for shark's fin and shark fin soup among Chinese.
For many Chinese people it is traditionally a luxurious dish associated with status, wealth and wedding banquets.
However, it is now routinely served at many occasions from business dinners to parties from Australia to Singapore.
With rising wealth in Southern China concern is mounting that it will lead to an increase in sharks fin consumption keeping it firmly on the menu.
Asiatic Marine's Frew would prefer the whole body of a shark to be used, if the killing can't be stopped.
"In total 25 million divers want to see sharks in their natural environment; responsible shark fisheries and management want to utilize the whole shark, " he told CNN.
The practice of finning is a common practice for the fishing fleets of Europe and Asia, especially amongst the local communities of developing nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines.
Demand is so great that many boats are even targeting the world's protected marine reserves, such as the Galapagos and Cocos Island in Costa Rica.
