China plans banquet ban on shark fin soup at publicly funded events

NOTHING RAISES your special banquet above the ordinary than serving bowls of shark fin soup, beloved of emperors and generals. But now this treasured dish could be off the menu at official banquets after pressure by concerned lawmakers in China.

The state council, or cabinet, said yesterday it was planning a banquet ban on shark fin soup in the next two or three years after 30 delegates at this year’s annual parliament pointed out that between 70 and 100 million sharks are killed for only their fins every year and 44 species of shark are in danger or face extinction.

The ban would also mean lavish banquets are cheaper and less likely to be the focus of corruption, which tallies with a crackdown on graft.

More than 95 per cent of the annual harvest of shark fin is consumed on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The sharks are often “finned”, which means they are caught, shorn of their fins and then thrown back alive into the water to die, and this has angered animal rights activists for many years.

The shark fin itself is chewy and tasteless, and is mostly there to add texture, but it is believed to have health-giving properties, especially in winter. It is also cherished as an expensive luxury food and is treasured by the newly wealthy as a way of showing off freshly acquired riches.

Many big Asian hotel chains, including Peninsula Hotels and Shangri-La, have already phased out shark fin because of the growing public anger at the practice, and the Hong Kong government banned “exorbitant food materials and endangered species such as shark fin “at state banquets last year.

“With a phase-out at Chinese government and publicly funded events, this sends the right message, that extinction need not be a tradition,” said Steven Schwankert, founder of SinoScuba, Beijings first professional dive operator, who has lobbied for many years for an end to the sale of shark fin.

Shark fin’s days were numbered after basketball star Yao Ming, who has remained a national hero since his retirement, called on the business community to lose its fondness for shark fin.

“Unless we act now, we will lose many shark populations, impacting our oceans worldwide,” Mr Yao said. “When the buying stops, the killing can too.”