Dear Editor:
Re: Shark group calls for ban on fin soup, Burnaby NOW, July 4
Following the rally and delegation organized at Richmond city council on July 9, Shark Truth reaffirms its commitment to collaborating with the community by empowering consumers and businesses to go shark fin free.
In these past three years, we've given opportunities to the community of Chinese descent to take action and to stop shark fin products, and they have.
We've seen fundamental change in our community: people no longer want to serve shark fin because they now know it doesn't match their values.
Because of this, businesses serving shark fin are also beginning to take it off the menu and are also showing an increased interest in seafood sustainability.
Burnaby is taking a step in the right direction by figuring out the best solution for both conservation and the community.
We hope all municipalities will consult and work with all the stakeholders involved for the best results. Our philosophy is collaboration, not confrontation.
Shark fin is mainly used as an ingredient in shark fin soup favoured by some middle-to higher-income families of Chinese descent, and is served as a status symbol and a gesture of generosity.
Every year, up to 73 million sharks are killed primarily for their fins, causing some populations to decline by 90 per cent and threatening the stability of the world's ocean ecosystems.
Sharks are inherently sensitive to overfishing due to their long-evolved biological nature (sexual maturity can take up to 25 years, lifespan up to 100 years and low gestation at two to three pups on average per year).
Coupled with the soaring demands for shark fin products, sharks being hunted through the process of shark finning - where a shark is taken just for its fin, and the rest of the body wasted and dumped overboard - continues rampant in the seas and has been cited as a "clear cutting" of the oceans.
Claudia Li, Executive director of Shark Truth
