Say ‘no’ to shark fin soup campaign launches in China

NBA star Yao Ming announces a new public service and billboard campaign in China against shark fin soup.

Fins from up to 70 million sharks a year are used for shark fin soup often with the rest of the body dumped overboard dead or alive. Shark poaching is rife in marine protected areas, such as the Galapagos Islands and Cocos Island. A recent study by the world’s top shark scientists (IUCN Shark Specialist Group) reported that of 64 species of open ocean sharks and rays 32% are “threatened with extinction,” primarily due to overfishing. In addition, 24% were “near threatened,” while another 25% could not be assessed due to lack of data. Sharks are highly vulnerable to overfishing due to their late maturity and slow reproduction. Globally shark catches are unregulated or unsustainable. The shark fin trade is unregulated worldwide.

In China, there is a growing groundswell of opposition to shark finning. In addition to NBA star and China’s most popular figure, Yao Ming, being featured in this campaign, other Chinese sporting and movie icons and leading businessmen are taking a stand by refusing to eat shark fin soup. Li Ning, who lit the Olympic torch and Liu Huan, who sang in the Beijing Opening ceremony, and a number of gold medal Olympians, including Americans Tara Kirk and Amanda Beard, have pledged not to eat shark fin soup and have recorded public service announcements, which have reached hundreds of millions of Chinese. The campaign has been featured on China’s CCTV networks featuring 20 Olympic gold medalists. Last month, 100 Chinese business leaders joined the pledge and Chinese E Bay equivalent Alibaba stopped allowing sales of shark fin through their site.

Read Press Release: http://www.sharksavers.org/en/blogs/utila-whale-shark-blog/621.html?task=view