Plea to scrap high-price dish fails to impress Sarah Liao
The government has refused requests from environmentalists to follow Disney's example by taking shark's fin soup off the official banquet menu for visiting dignitaries.
Green group, the Friends of Hoi Ha, wrote last month to Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung seeking an assurance that the government would not allow shark's fin soup to be served at its banquets.
The appeal is backed by WWF Hong Kong which wants the government to help set an example after Disney bowed to pressure from environmentalists and removed the dish from banquet menus at its theme park hotel.
WWF Hong Kong chief executive Eric Bohm said: 'We feel that until such time as there is a sustainable and certifiable source of shark's fin, it should be removed [from government banquet menus] because sharks are coming under increasing threat.'
However, a spokeswoman for Dr Liao said the government would not impose a ban, saying sharks were not listed as an endangered species.
