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| HSI |
| Patrick speaks with interested passers-by. |
At Chinese restaurants and formal banquets, pricey shark fin soup is considered a status symbol for special occasions. But most people don’t realize that each bowl comes at devastating ecological cost. Fishermen cut the fins from thousands of sharks, and throw the carcasses back into the water, sometimes while the sharks are still alive. Shark populations are plummeting—all for an expensive bowl of soup.
That’s why New York State HSUS Director Patrick Kwan, who speaks Cantonese, along with Humane Society International’s Shu Jen Chen, who speaks Mandarin, hit the streets of San Francisco and New York City in February to tell the ugly truth about shark fin soup.
“We were shocked when we walked in one store in San Francisco and saw hundreds of dried fins—and this is just one store,” Kwan said. “At another store next door, there were hundreds more.”
Spreading the Word
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If you eat shark fin soup, pledge not to do so any longer. Even if you don't eat it, you can still help! Learn more about how. |
Kwan took a group of journalists to an unusual press conference in New York on February 19th at Chinatown’s Buddha Bodai restaurant. These reporters sampled a Chinese vegetarian feast that included vegetarian shark fin soup. The story showed up in four major daily newspapers that reach Chinese readers around the world, a major Chinese-language television station and two popular Chinese-language radio stations.
“Everybody was talking about it,” Kwan said.
As part of the Humane Society International’s outreach to consumers, Kwan and Chen staffed an HSI booth during San Francisco’s Chinese New Year street fair on February 23 and 24. They handed out literature and displayed vegetarian shark fin, which, they explained to people who stopped by, is more healthful, less expensive and more ecologically sound.
“When I lived in Taiwan, I didn’t know anything about this,” Chen said. “When I learned about it, I stopped eating it. I think this is true for a lot of people.”
Valuable, But Flavorless
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| HSI |
| Shark fin for sale in San Francisco. |
Shark fin has no flavor and very little nutritional value. In fact, cooks add seasonings and chicken, fish or mushroom stock for flavor. The shark fin provides texture. The trade in shark fins is estimated to be worth $500 million per year. Fins are dried, de-skinned, boiled and sometimes bleached. The fins of certain species are considered more valuable because of the length and thickness of the "fin needles" that they contain. Because sharks are always at—or near—the top of the food chain, their disappearance has devastating consequences for other fish species.
Until the 1980s, the Chinese government discouraged people from eating shark fin soup because it was considered elitist. When the government relaxed that attitude, consumption soared. Mainland China is now the world's biggest end-market for shark fin, and shark populations have plummeted.
A bowl of shark fin soup can sell for as much as $100. Because of its perceived value, some see serving shark fin soup at private functions as a way of honoring one's guests and signaling wealth and status.
Raising Awareness
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| HSI |
| Shark fin on the menu. |
“When we speak with the younger generation, they say: 'Wow. I had no idea,'” Kwan said. "People were saying: ‘Hey, Mom—we shouldn’t be ordering shark fin soup!’"
Through HSI, Kwan and Chen have also brought their appeal to save the world’s declining shark populations to temples, cultural centers, a school, and churches.
“We’re hoping restaurants won’t serve shark fin at all, or use vegetarian shark fin and let people know—here is the price difference,” Kwan said.
The response to the campaign has been terrific. By the end of outreach efforts in February, more than 10,000 people had signed HSI’s online “No Shark Fin” pledge.
