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Chinese New Year celebrants targeted in shark-fin campaign

Chinese New Year celebrations are underway and that means a feast for Asian families gathering to mark the Year of the Ox, although it”s the shark that environmentalists are worried about. Humane Society International is targeting Chinese restaurants and diners in major cities across North America this week with its campaign against shark finning.

Shark fin soup, once prized as a symbol of wealth, is a highlight at Chinese New Year festivities and major gatherings such as wedding banquets.

But environmental groups says millions of sharks are dumped back into the world’s oceans after their fins are cut off, leaving the top predators to die a slow and painful death.

Shu-Jen Chen, a campaign manager with the humane society, said Wednesday that Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are among the cities where volunteers will target people who eat shark fin soup. She said they’ve already handed out brochures at a Chinese New Year parade in Toronto and will do the same in Vancouver on Sunday.

“We’re mainly targeting the consumer and the restaurant and retailers if they sell any shark-fin products,” Chen said from Maryland.

While the soup is coveted for its supposed medicinal qualities based on the myth that sharks never get sick, Chen said her group is trying to educate people about the high mercury level in shark fins that’s potentially harmful, especially for pregnant women.

“Some people who eat shark fin soup say it’s very helpful to their health and some people say if you eat shark fin soup you will be beautiful,” said Chen, who grew up eating the soup in Taiwan before moving to the United States five years ago.

She said Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore were the world’s largest consumers of the soup but now China, with its booming economy, is the global capital. She said Vancouver and Toronto, with their high Asian populations, also see the soup on menus.

Several Chinese restaurant managers contacted by The Canadian Press in Vancouver said they served shark fin soup – until they were told they were speaking to a reporter. “I understand (the issue) for the environment, but if I say something I might get fired,” said one manager, who didn’t want his name used.

Chen said that while it’s hard to convince restaurateurs to take shark fin soup off the menu, her group recently scored a major victory at the Taiwan National Palace Museum restaurant, where the delicacy is no longer served for ethical reasons.

She said it’s just as tough to create awareness in the Asian community because families who don’t serve it at weddings, for example, would be considered stingy.

Toronto filmmaker Rob Stewart, whose award-winning documentary “Sharkwater” chronicles the plight of the world’s sharks, said the message is slowly getting out.

Last week, the food distributor Loblaws stopped selling shark fin soup for Chinese New Year at its Great Canadian Superstore outlets after a campaign by Stewart’s group Saving Sharks.

“The shark fin soup got pulled from Great Canadian Superstores in under five days,” he said.

But Stewart said most governments around the globe aren’t doing much to take on the issue of the shark, which he calls “the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.”

Worldwide, there’s no ban on the shark-fin trade or the importation or sale of fins, he said.

“There’s a significant amount of sharks that are finned in Canada and there’s a few shark fisheries in Canada.”

Stewart said he hopes to raise awareness on a massive level after his film debuts on Chinese TV later this year to a potential audience of 300 million people.

He said that at last year’s Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, most countries proposed a ban on fishing for porbeagle and spiny dogfish sharks – used for fish and chips in the United Kingdom – because their supply is rapidly dwindling.

(From thestar.com – Toronto )

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