Environment     

Outrage over shark fin rooftop in Hong Kong

China Daily, January 4, 2013

• Shark fins drying in the sun cover the roof of a building in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Environmentalists have raised concerns that the overharvesting of fins is causing an environmental calamity. Hong Kong is one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make expensive soup at Chinese banquets. [Agencies]

  
  
  

  Hong Kong conservationists expressed outrage Thursday after images emerged of a factory rooftop covered in thousands of freshly sliced shark fins, as they called for curbs on the "barbaric" trade.

  The southern Chinese city is one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make soup that is an expensive staple at Chinese banquets and viewed by many Asians as a rare delicacy.

  Activist Gary Stokes, who has visited the site, estimated there are 15,000 to 20,000 fins laid out to dry on the rooftop on Hong Kong island ahead of an anticipated surge in demand over Lunar New Year in February this year.

  "This is shocking," the Hong Kong coordinator for conservation group Sea Shepherd said, saying it was the first time he has seen such a massive hoarding of shark fins in one place in the Asian financial hub.

  "This is the most graphic, brutal and barbaric part of the industry - the element of chopping a shark's fin off and throwing it back into the water is horrific and inhumane," he added.

  Stokes believed that traders moved to dry the shark fins on secluded rooftops instead of sidewalks - as they have done in the past - to avoid public anger.

  Campaigns against consuming shark fins have gained ground in Hong Kong in recent years, after major hotel chains decided to drop the soup from the menus, and home carrier Cathay Pacific said in September it would stop carrying unsustainable sourced shark products on its cargo flights.

  Stokes urged Hong Kong authorities to ban the trade: "As long as there is no protection for the sharks, the (demand) will just keep going on and on."

   

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