Green coalition calls for formal ban on shark fin in Hong Kong
Coalition of high-profile activists sends letter asking the government to stop serving shark at all public functions to save threatened species
A coalition of marine conservation groups and high-profile environmentalists has written to the government calling for a formal ban on serving shark fin at all official functions.
The letter, whose signatories include Virgin Group boss Richard Branson, oceanographer Jacque Cousteau's grandson Fabien and filmmaker Ric O'Barry, follows an outcry after images of thousands of shark fins drying on a Hong Kong rooftop were published this month.
The pictures and a video watched more than 300,000 times on YouTube spotlighted Hong Kong's pivotal role in the shark fin industry, which sees the fins of an estimated 73 million sharks traded a year.
Representatives of nearly 60 firms and green groups including Greenpeace, the Hong Kong Shark Foundation, Animals Asia, the Humane Society International, WWF Hong Kong and the SPCA, signed the letter, accusing the government of inaction.
Although an unofficial ban is already in place on serving shark fin at government banquets, the coalition calls for a formal ban "at all official functions across the public sector".
Criticising the response to the rooftop images, the letter says: "Despite voices raised in protest in Hong Kong and elsewhere, the response received from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, or indeed anyone else in the government, has been lacking.