China Announces Ban On Shark Fin’s At Official Banquets

by | Dec 12, 2013 | Conservation, Fish, Science | 1 comment

China has announced a ban on Shark Fin’s at Official Banquets. Although the ban is intended to cut down on excessive spending and extravagance in the Chinese Government, it will have significant impact on Chinese Society.
shark-fins-taiwan-parts_42722_600x450
According to conservation group WildAid, up to 73 million sharks are killed each year solely so that their fins can be sold for shark fin soup, 95 percent of which is consumed in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. As recently as 2006, as the Washington Post reports, many Chinese citizens didn’t even know the soup came from sharks — 80 percent, according to one poll, were unaware of the origin of the soup’s key ingredient.
Wildaid has a campaign against the soup in China. The campaign works with celebrities to get their message across. Even Chinese professional basketball player Yao Ming has spoken out against the harm the soup causes shark populations and the oceans overall. In January 2012, the luxury hotel chain Shangri-La Asia announced it would ban shark fin soup from all 72 of its hotels. Several high-end restaurants and hotels have followed suit, and in September, Hong Kong announced a ban on shark fin soup (as well as the increasingly rare bluefin tuna and black moss) at government functions.
shrk-finned-shrk4-2MB-RCA decline in demand of the Soup will help the Shark populations who have suffered because of the desire for Shark Fin soup in Asian countries. Shark Finning has devastated the species. Sharks fins are cut off and the sharks are thrown back into the ocean to die. Some shark populations have declined by 98 percent in the last 15 years due to finning, and all 14 species most commonly caught for their fins are now at risk of extinction. As a top marine predator, their drastic drops in numbers put considerable stress on an ocean ecosystem already at major risk from acidification and over-fishing.

 MORE

shrk-taiwan-heinrichs-finning-214039-press-RC

  • Francis Yupangco

    Francis is a marine biologist with an MBA and over 20 years of professional aquarium experience. Francis is the former Aquatic Development Manager at Hagen USA., makers of Fluval brand aquarium products. He co-stars on Nat Geo WILD's reality TV series Fish Tank Kings where he is the resident "Fish Geek" and was Director of Marketing at Living Color Aquariums. He is an avid explorer having visited over 45 countries and lived in 7. At 17, he was among the youngest aquarists ever hired by the Vancouver Aquarium, where he worked for 7 years. His aquatic biology experience ranges from larval fish rearing to the design, construction and operational management of renowned public aquariums around the world. Francis is currently head of marketing at the world's largest vertically integrated fish farming company.

    View all posts

1 Comment

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *