Environment group adds bite to shark fin campaign
Date: 11-Oct-02
Country: CHINA
The Singapore-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society plans to put up posters in schools and public areas showing men in gas masks and chemical protection gear cooking in a kitchen before serving up bowls of shark fin soup to dinner guests.
Postcards with the same image will be distributed free in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, San Francisco, and possibly even China, group spokesman Grant Pereira told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Each card will carry a warning: "Shark fins may contain high levels of mercury. Eat them at your own risk."
The society ran another postcard campaign earlier this year which showed a bride and groom gazing lovingly into each other's eyes as they entered a blood-splattered banquet hall littered with mutilated sharks.
Shark fin soup is a favourite delicacy of many Chinese and is widely served in soup at wedding banquets as a symbol of generosity and wealth. As many as 40 sharks can be killed to supply each wedding.
A recent study in Hong Kong found people with high mercury levels in their blood had frequently consumed deep sea fish such as tuna and shark fin, local newspapers reported.
The study also showed excessive levels of mercury can lead to male and female infertility. Men with high mercury levels were found to have abnormal sperm which swam backwards or sideways instead of forwards.
A study by environmental group WildAid in Thailand last year showed 70 percent of shark fins contained mercury levels in excess of World Health Organisation guidelines.
Environmentalists have long protested against the practice of "finning", where fishermen hack off the fins of a shark and throw the rest of it overboard, leaving them to die.
Shark fin makes a gelatinous soup prized for its delicate texture and taste, whereas shark meat is considered tough.
Pereira said the society received a good reception from its earlier campaign.
"A lot of people called to encourage us and a few companies we know took sharks' fin off their dinner menus," he said.
