Thank you China for banning shark fin soup from official banquets

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/09/3036831/china-bans-shark-fin-soup/

By Katie Valentine on December 9, 2013

China has banned shark fin soup and bird’s nest soup from official banquets, a move that’s meant to cut back on extravagances in government spending but that could have significant environmental benefits.

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But the ban on shark fin soup, in particular, comes a year after the country pledged to ban the soup from official banquets and after several years of outcry from within China and throughout the world over the cruelty and grave environmental consequences of the dish.

“It’s a commendable decision and a brave one that the Chinese government has taken,” Alex Hofford, executive director of Hong Kong-based MyOcean, told Agence France-Presse. “It’s going to have a great impact on society, because what the government does shows leadership in society and then the corporate sector will quickly follow suit.”

According to conservation group WildAid, up to 73 million sharks are killed each year solely so that their fins can be sold for shark fin soup, 95 percent of which is consumed in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. As recently as 2006, as the Washington Post reports, many Chinese citizens didn’t even know the soup came from sharks — 80 percent, according to one poll, were unaware of the origin of the soup’s key ingredient.

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