It's good to know that Shangri La Hotel and Resorts yesterday announced its decision to remove shark fin soup from their restaurants' menu worldwide.
The Hong Kong-based luxury hotel group has 72 hotels worldwide.
In November, the Peninsula hotel became the first traditional hotel in Hong Kong – the centre of the trade – to remove the dish from its restaurants. It was followed by 112 companies which signed up to a "Say No" initiative to remove shark fin from corporate banquets.
This is somewhat significant ahead of the Chinese spring festival which happens to be the main season for shark fin soup consumption at banquets in Hong Kong and the mainland.
It is estimated that between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply this billion-dollar industry. Almost a third are consumed during Chinese new year.
I've stopped eating shark fin soup for a long time now. Yes, in support of the worldwide campaign against killing of sharks for their fins.
The Guardian Story is HERE
and also the AFP article is HERE.
So, it goes without saying that you'll not be served shark fin soup at the Kuala Lumpur Shangri La...
Next question: when will other hotels be brave enough to do the same?
Nuraina,to completely stop serving the sharks fin in hotels and restaurant makes more sense than just removing it from the menu. Although I do enjoy this delicacy I agreed that it is the right thing to do.Maybe they should make it into law to ban shark hunting once and for all.Then the commercial fishermen will be up in arms.
ReplyDeleteTo hunt sharks just for the fins, and then throw the whole carcasses back into the ocean makes no sense,except for the financial gains.At least find some use for the whole animal.There are some seafood restaurants in the US which serves shark meat,but who wants to eat it anyway.There are so many types of fish which taste many times better than sharks meat.
Documentary films about shark hunting shows the cruelty done to these animals.Using chain saws to cut off their fins and throwing them back alive into the ocean to drown and die.But as people are more aware of the cruelty done to these animals less people will consumed this delicacy,leading to less demand and therefore less shark hunting.
Like the movement against fur coats because of the cruelty done to animals snarled by trappers traps.When some celebrities don't pay attention to these animals activists,they select celebrities as targets and spray painted their fur coats.This bad publicity did encouraged fur coat enthusists to keep their very expensive showoffs in the storage.Eventually there will be sharks activist picketing outside upscale restaurents and hotels too.
bruno: i do believe, removing the dish from the menu means that they will no longer serve it...at least in the Shangri La group.
ReplyDeleteabsolutely, bruno..my sentiments exactly..
I wish those serving turtle eggs in stalls around town would stop doing so.
ReplyDelete