Thai Airways bans shark fin from cargo flights

30th July 2014

Thai Airways has banned shark fin from its cargo flights as part of a growing global campaign against the popular delicacy in Asia.

The carrier joins a host of other airlines in taking a stand against shark fin, highly prized by many in the region, especially in Hong Kong and China where it is commonly served as a soup at wedding banquets and corporate parties.

"As part of the world community sharing in the great concern for the protection of endangered species and the environment, Thai Airways International has implemented its own official policy to place an embargo on the shipping of shark fin products," the airline said in a statement Tuesday.

Conservationists say booming demand for fins has put pressure on the world's shark populations, prompting calls for measures to restrict their trade.

Thai Airways officially stopped flying shark fin from 15 July but has avoided shipping fins for over a year, according to the statement.

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Air New Zealand bans shark fins

Forest & Bird and Greenpeace have congratulated Air New Zealand on its decision to stop freighting shark fins

June 2013. Air New Zealand has banned the carriage of shark fins on its flights. New Zealand has restrictions on shark fins, and many parties wanted a complete ban, but the ruling party disagreed.

Katrina Subedar, of New Zealand's Forest & Bird Marine conservation organisation, said "Our national airline, which trades on New Zealand's clean green reputation, clearly sees that transporting shark fins doesn't fit with its environmental values, and is therefore a major risk to its brand,".

"But just as the trade is a threat to Air New Zealand, it's also a threat to New Zealand. It's high time that the government acted to protect our green-marketing edge, and put an end to this disgustingly wasteful practise. Shark finning is hugely wasteful, and is putting the very survival of several shark species at risk," Katrina Subedar says.

New Zealand Shark Alliance

Under New Zealand law, it is legal to catch a shark, kill it, cut off its fins, and dump its unused body overboard. Both Greenpeace and Forest & Bird are members of the New Zealand Shark Alliance, which is calling for a ban on shark finning, by requiring that sharks be released alive or brought to shore with their fins naturally attached.

"Many Pacific countries are way ahead of our government on this. For example, Palau created the world's first large-scale shark sanctuary in 2009," says Greenpeace New Zealand's Karli Thomas.

Representatives from seven of the eight political parties in Parliament signed a pledge in November last year committing their support for a law change to ban shark finning in New Zealand. However, the National Party refused to sign the pledge.

Continued

HK's Cathay Pacific bans shark fins as air cargo

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific says it will stop carrying shark fins as cargo, bowing to pressure from groups concerned about cruelty and possible extinctions as China's appetite for the delicacy rises.

"Due to the vulnerable nature of sharks, their rapidly declining population, and the impacts of overfishing for their parts and products, our carriage of these is inconsistent with our commitment to sustainable development," Cathay said in a statement.

Shark's fin soup has long been a staple of high-class Chinese banquets and its consumption is becoming more commonplace as incomes in China rise.

Cathay is the biggest airline in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong, which is estimated to account for about half of the global trade in shark fins. The company is also one of the world's biggest cargo airlines.

"The decision will not have a material impact on business," spokeswoman Elin Wong said Thursday, but she could not say exactly how much shark's fin the airline carried.

The airline's decision comes after it received a letter in July from 40 environmental and humane groups. Citing government statistics, they said more than 10,200 metric tons of shark fin were imported into Hong Kong last year, 13 percent of that by air cargo.

The announcement by Cathay, one of Hong Kong's blue chip companies, follows similar moves by other high profile groups. The luxury Peninsula and Shangri-la hotel chains have said they would stop serving shark's fin. In July, the Chinese government said it would stop serving it at official receptions.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019078292_apashongkongcathaysharkfins.html?syndication=rss

Asian-American Groups Sue Over California Shark Fin Ban

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Two Asian-American groups have challenged the state’s shark fin ban in a federal lawsuit in San Francisco, claiming it discriminates against Chinese Americans because it blocks cultural uses of shark fin soup.

“It discriminates against people of Chinese national origin by targeting and suppressing ancient cultural practices unique to people of Chinese national origin,” the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday by the San Francisco-based Chinatown Neighborhood Association and the Burlingame-based Asian Americans for Political Advancement.

It names California Gov. Jerry Brown, Attorney General Kamala Harris and Fish and Game Department Director Charlton Bonham as defendants.

The law, enacted as AB 376 last fall, bans possession and sale of shark fins that are detached from shark bodies. It went into effect Jan. 1, but contains an exception allowing restaurants and individuals to use or sell previously legally obtained fins until July 1, 2013.

The purpose of the law, according to the Legislature’s wording, is to “help ensure that sharks do not become extinct as a result of shark finning.”

Shark finning is the practice of catching a shark, cutting off the fins, and throwing the body of the fish back into the water to die.

The lawsuit says shark fin soup is “a ceremonial centerpiece of traditional Chinese banquets” and is used in celebrations of weddings, birthdays of elders and festivals such as Chinese New Year. Its use dates back to the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century, the lawsuit says.

Continued:  http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/07/20/2-groups-sue-over-california-shark-fin-ban/

Eating shark fin soup makes you stupid

70 - 100 million sharks killed every year - Completely unsustainable
April 2012. Shark fin soup is seen as a luxury and prestigious dish and is often served at weddings and banquets. Although it has no taste, it is desired for its texture - somewhat sinewy apparently. Shark fin soup was much prized by Chinese emperors, but as there were so few of these, it never threatened shark populations until many many more people became able to afford it. 

Unintended consequences - Scallop fishery collapse - Coral reef destruction - Sea grass disappearing
Unfortunately nowadays, many millions of people now eat the soup and consequently, sharks are being killed at a completely unsustainable rate. Whilst some foolish people may think - So what, who needs sharks? The answer is we all do. The almost complete disappearance of large sharks from the Eastern seaboard of the USA has led to a collapse of the once prolific and profitable scallop industry. Why? The absence of large sharks has seen numbers of rays, especially cow-nose rays, increase rapidly, and what do they eat? Scallops. (Now there are so few scallops, indications are that they will turn to clams and oysters.).

Similar effects have been shown to destroy coral reefs (fish that eat coral abound without shark predation) and sea grass beds (Dugong eat a lot more when there are no sharks about), and some key fish stocks are depleted when seal numbers increase. Thus the effects are widespread, and often unforeseen. Canada is often pilloried for killing seals, which they do partly to protect fish stocks - Yet if there were more sharks about this may well not be necessary.

Shark decline unsustainable
At these current rates, many large sharks may become extinct in many of the areas that they used to be found in in a few years' time. The trouble is that if this happens, as can be seen from the current butchery of rhinos and elephants, the price for shark fin will go up and so the few that there are will be even more persecuted.

According to Oceana.org - Scientists estimate that fishing has reduced large predatory fish populations worldwide by 90 percent over the past 50 to 100 years.

Sharks now represent the largest group of threatened marine species on the World Conservation Union's IUCN) Red List of threatened species. Yet only three of the 350 shark species - basking, whale and white - are protected from the pressures of international trade. The remaining species are ignored or seen as low priorities despite their vulnerability to overfishing and their important role in their ecosystems.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/shark-fin-soup.html

Obama in hot water over shark fin soup

It was the sort of visit made for cameras, but President Barack Obama's stop at a Chinese restaurant came under scrutiny on Friday after the menu showed that it served shark fin.

Obama, in San Francisco for fund-raisers, on Thursday surprised and delighted lunch-time diners with a surprise stop at a restaurant in Chinatown. He posed for pictures and paid in cash for two bags of take-out food.

But a look at the menu of the restaurant, Great Eastern, showed that it offered soup from shark fin, a Chinese delicacy that environmentalists say is pushing the ancient fish to the point of extinction.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that no one on the staff had been aware of the issue until seeing media reports on Friday and that Obama had not ordered shark.

"The president enjoyed his visit to Chinatown, and, as you know, ordered a lot of dim sum takeout. No soup," Carney told reporters on Air Force One.

Environmentalists say that tens of millions of sharks are killed each year as fishermen slice off their fins for dinner tables, leaving them to die in the water. Sharks have few offspring, compounding risks to their survival.

The United States banned finning in its waters in 2000. Obama in January 2011 signed the Shark Conservation Act that toughened regulations by banning imports of fins that are not attached to corresponding shark carcasses.

While the federal law did not ban shark fins themselves, California Governor Jerry Brown in October signed a bill that barred the sale, trade and possession of shark fins. However, restaurants in San Francisco and elsewhere in California can still sell existing stocks of shark fin until July 2013.

Rebecca Regnery, deputy director of wildlife for Humane Society International, said that shark fin was still on offer at a majority of large Chinese restaurants in cities with large Asian populations.

She said that her group had special cards which it encouraged diners to fill out and send to restaurants if they find shark fin.

"Usually the restaurants say we're happy not to serve it, but then everyone is going to go to our competitor and because of demand we're obligated to serve it," she said.

"If it's the opposite, and people go to a competitor that does not serve shark fin, then it starts making economic sense to take it off the menu," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-hot-water-over-shark-fin-soup-224053506.html

California bans sale of shark fins

After more than 27,000 sign online petition, ban becomes law
October 2011: California has become the fourth American state to ban the sale of shark fins. Governor Jerry Brown signed the California shark fin ban into law earlier this month.

Shark finning is a process by which fishermen catch sharks, slice off their fins and tails, then throw the fish back into the water to die. Up to 73 million sharks are killed through finning every year, pushing some shark populations to decline by as much as 90 per cent in recent years. About 85 per cent of U.S. shark-fin consumption occurs in California .

'This just might preserve sharks and the ocean ecosystem'The bill's passage marks a huge win for the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance (APA Alliance), an organisation formed to give voice to Asian Americans who support the ban on the sale of shark fins. Bill Wong, a member of the APA Alliance, recruited more than 25,000 people to join a campaign on Change.org calling for passage of the ban.

‘We applaud Governor Brown for signing this agreement,' said Bill Wong, creator of the petition on Change.org and member of the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance. ‘It puts California at the forefront of the global effort to save sharks led by a broad coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, conservationists, animal rights activists, commercial fishermen, business leaders and artists.

‘The passage of this bill may just be the tipping point that will preserve the shark species and the ocean ecosystem.'

The ban comes into effect on January 1, 2012, but businesses and individuals can sell shark fins obtained before the ban went into effect until July 1, 2013. California is now the fourth U.S. state to enact a ban on the sale of shark fins, joining Hawaii, Washington and Oregon.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/shark-california.html#cr