Where battle to curb shark fin consumption is being won and lost, and why trade has to stop – new research
Young consumers in China and Hong Kong are turning away from shark fin, but overseas Chinese are eating more, report finds. The only way to save oceans’ apex predator is to stop eating and trading in fins now, researchers say
Though waning in Hong Kong, the appetite for shark fin soup is still strong among overseas Chinese communities. A new report has now put out an urgent call; the trade and consumption of shark fin must stop immediately, it warns. Demand for the product from wealthy consumers is largely responsible for reducing populations of some species such as hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks by more than 90 per cent, it says.
Researchers from the University of Hong Kong, the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia and environmental group WildAid Hong Kong, found that annual shark catch levels had more than doubled to 1.4 million tonnes since 1960.
The findings were published last week in Marine Policy, a leading journal of ocean policy studies.
Over-exploitation is “threatening almost 60 per cent of shark species, the highest proportion among all vertebrate groups”, says Yvonne Sadovy, lead author of the study and professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.