Air Pacific accused of hypocrisy over shark fins cargo
Fiji's national carrier has been accused by activists of hypocrisy for backing conservation for public relations while flying fins to HK
When Hong Kong couple Cloudy and Stephen served up a banquet free of shark's fin soup at their wedding in December, their gesture towards conservation won them a honeymoon in Fiji, courtesy of the national airline Air Pacific.
For competition sponsor Air Pacific - which will be renamed Air Fiji in June - it was an ideal opportunity to promote their twice-weekly direct flights to Hong Kong by offering free tickets to Fiji to the winners.
As she collected her prize, Cloudy declared: "We believe in love and in the balance between nature and humans. I hope the competition will be held annually to educate people and change the unsustainable and cruel practice of shark-finning forever."
Air Pacific, for its part, trumpeted on the competition website: "We are proud to support the Happy Hearts Love Sharks wedding contest, because shark tourism is an important source of revenue for the local economy and because Fijians have long respected sharks.
"Our ancestors viewed sharks as gods who kept the community safe from harm and they would feed sharks, not hunt them. Today, this tradition is continued by local villages having jobs as shark feeders who dive with tourists so that they can experience the beauty of sharks in their natural habitat."
Five months after Cloudy and Stephen's Fiji honeymoon, however, Air Pacific's environmental boasts have a hollow ring as a letter signed by a coalition of environmental groups accuses it of carrying shark fins as cargo on passenger flights to Hong Kong.