HONG KONG (CHINA)- The pressure is on. Last weekend the government of Hong Kong officially declared it would stop serving shark fin at official functions as “a good example,” following years of lobbying by conservation groups. The southern Chinese city is one of the world’s biggest markets for shark fin,Continue Reading
HONG KONG (CHINA)- Good news for sharks worldwide. The shark fin trade is on its way back. The world’s biggest hub in shark fin trade, Hong Kong, has seen its imports drop by 30 procent in the past year. Hong Kong imported 1,162 tons of shark fins in 2012, accordingContinue Reading
HONG KONG (CHINA)- It was standard on the menu of every wedding banquet in Hong Kong. But the appetite for shark fin soup is fading. 90 percent of people say they could, or would, go without it, according to the Hong Kong daily The Standard. That’s what a survey ofContinue Reading
The European Union (EU) agreed this week to tighten up an existing ban on shark finning by eliminating a loophole that allowed fisherman to still remove fins from caught shark. The ban for EU fishing crews has existed since 2003, but with special permits they were still allowed to removeContinue Reading
AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)- Air New Zealand is the the latest airline to stop flying shipments of shark’s fin to Hong Kong, the shark’s fin capital of the world. The decision came about after the New Zealand Shark Alliance revealed the airline’s shipments in local media. Earlier, other airlines did theContinue Reading
HONG KONG (CHINA)- Air Pacific, soon to be Fiji Air, has been accused by environmentalist groups of of being one of the world’s major carriers of shark fins into Hong Kong. The airline profiles itself as ‘shark friendly’. Campaigners claim that the airline carries shark fins as cargo on its passengerContinue Reading
Happy new year. But not for sharks. Photos shot by environmentalist Gary Stokes in Hong Kong in the New Year show more than 18,000 shark fins drying on the roofs of industrial buildings. The astonishing images present just a fraction of the haul that kills an estimated 75 million sharksContinue Reading