BEIJING — The battle to save the world’s sharks from extinction has not yet been won, despite one of the most significant wildlife success stories of recent years.
But the news is offset by a rise in the consumption of this dish in places such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Macau, according to a new report by WildAid, a San Francisco-based group that campaigns to curb demand for wildlife products.
“While consumers in mainland China have changed their behavior in response to awareness campaigns and a government banquet ban, shark fin soup remains on the menu in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and consumption is growing in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Macau,” said WildAid chief executive Peter Knights.
Not only does shark fin have no nutritional benefit — it is often tasteless strands of cartilage in a chicken broth — but it also can be harmful. The shark’s position at the top of the food chain means it can contain dangerous amounts of mercury, cadmium, arsenic and other poisonous metals, the report said.
The dish from ancient imperial China was popularized after the country’s economy took off and a wealthy class emerged with a penchant for ostentatious displays of social status. Costly shark fin soup became a popular dish at weddings and banquets, and the oceans were exploited for this new fad.
Today, about 100 million sharks are killed every year, with parts of 73 million ending up in soup, WildAid estimates. A quarter of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, including species like the great hammerhead.
The wholesale slaughter of sharks is also detrimental to the marine ecosystem itself — already under pressure from industrial-scale overfishing — because removing the apex predator throws everything out of balance.
Many sharks are tossed back into the ocean after their fins are removed.
A public awareness campaign led by former National Basketball Association player Yao Ming helped educate Chinese people about the cruelty of the shark fin trade. A decade ago, surveys showed that most were unaware that what is known here as “fish wing soup” involved the death of sharks.
President Xi Jinping’s signature campaign against corruption did the rest, taking the dish off the menu at official banquets.
As a result, consumption, imports and prices of shark fin in China have plummeted.
But the effort to build on that faces fresh challenges.
WildAid reported that although 5 percent of Hong Kong wedding guests said they like shark fin soup, 98 percent of restaurants there continue to serve it, including the popular Hong Kong Maxim’s chain.
And while WildAid has helped persuade 44 international airlines and shipping companies to prohibit the transport of shark fins, FedEx continues to hold out, the report said.
In a statement, FedEx said it is opposed to the trafficking of animal parts obtained from protected species and is committed to investigating any violations.
Macau’s booming casino and tourism industry serves shark fin dishes in large quantities, and now a new market for shark fin soup is emerging among Chinese Indonesians. The dish is also on the menu at business functions in Vietnam.
Thailand has emerged as a significant market, as well. WildAid said 57 percent of people polled in urban Thailand had tried the soup, mostly at weddings, family dinners or business meetings, while more than 100 restaurants in Bangkok serve it.
In a 2017 survey, WildAid found that while awareness of the cruelty and extent of the shark fin trade was low, many Thais wanted to try shark fin soup because they had heard it was tasty, a possible indication that demand could rise further.
Sharks are also threatened by demand for their meat from Brazil, Uruguay, Britain, Italy and Spain, where consumers are often unaware they are consuming it in seafood dishes. Shark liver oil, known as squalene, is used in cosmetics and health supplements such as omega-3 pills, accounting for 3 million shark deaths a year.
Millions more sharks die each year when they are caught alongside tuna, WildAid said. It added that greater protection is needed for blue sharks, with up to 20 million killed deliberately or unintentionally each year.
In a statement, Maxim’s Chinese Cuisine said it used DNA testing to make sure it used fins only from blue sharks, a species at lower risk on the IUCN Red List. It said it has promoted shark-free and ocean-friendly menus and has seen a 60 percent drop in fin consumption in the past seven years.
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