Shark's fin: Singapore takes a much bigger bite

Excerpts from a Straits Times article earlier this year.

Consumption jumped from 182 tonnes in 2006 to over 470 tonnes last year
Jermyn Chow, Straits Times 10 May 08.

AFTER four years of decline, the consumption of shark's fin spiked last year, with more than 470 tonnes eaten despite pleas from environmental groups for consumers to cut down.

'Globally, there are fewer sharks in our waters that can be hunted now, so naturally prices go up,' said Mr Dennis Yio, director of Chin Guan Hong (Sharksfin), Singapore's biggest shark's fin supplier.

If even the suppliers are confirming this information shouldn't we be doing something about it? The businesses obviously won't because they'll continue to make money if the prices go up!

Hotels, including the Orchard Hotel and the Mandarin Oriental, also say shark's fin remains one of their most popular dishes at their Chinese restaurants and wedding banquets.'Most of the couples' parents consider this dish a premium and without it, they would lose face,' said Mandarin Oriental's communications director Ruth Soh.

Still, the hotel ensures that the fins it buys are only from fish farms, and not those that are harvested in the wild, or 'finned', she added.

Shark farms? Where got such thing one!

Just this week, the Singapore Environment Council and international conservation group WildAid renewed their calls for people to slice their shark's fin intake, adding that globally, between 40 million and 70 million sharks get killed for their fins each year. Environmental groups say about one-third of shark species in the world - some 126 - are classified as being at risk of extinction or critically endangered.

That message is sinking in for some. There are couples who insist on alternatives to shark's fin soup at their wedding dinners, hotels admit, and at least two airlines - Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways International - stopped serving shark's fin on their flights in 2001.

Why would some people rather spend money on marketing and illusions of "high-class" living than NOT spend money and save our environment? Feeding the people is one thing; feeding a myth or one’s ego is another thing entirely.