Shark fin still on most Hong Kong restaurant menus for Lunar New Year banquets, study finds
Hong Kong Shark Foundation survey of almost 300 menus from city’s Chinese restaurants finds that 85 per cent include shark fin dishes
Most Lunar New Year banquet menus in Hong Kong restaurants still offer shark fin dishes, a survey has found, prompting a conservation group to call for the government to formulate policies to reduce consumption of the product and curb the trade amid growing global concern.
Hong Kong Shark Foundation’s call on Thursday came after it conducted a survey last month on the shark fin situation in the city’s Chinese restaurants.
More than a third of Hong Kong shark fin products are from threatened species, study reveals
It reviewed 291 festive menus from 50 outlets of 20 restaurant chains and made telephone inquiries about the shark species involved and sales methods.
The survey found that 85 per cent of the banquet menus offer shark fin dishes. Only half of the restaurants offer shark-free options. None contained information on the shark species, mostly using general descriptions such as “soup of shark fin in whole” or “shark’s fin soup in chicken broth”.
The foundation said that the restaurant East Ocean Lafayette in Tsim Sha Tsui even offered fin from a regulated species, Wu Yang or silky shark, which had seen its numbers decline by up to 90 per cent.