The US Senate’s move to toughen laws on shark finning is unlikely to have much impact in Hong Kong, dubbed the “Grand Central Station” of the controversial trade, environmentalists say.
The new legislation passed last week is aimed at protecting the ancient fish, which experts fear is on the brink of extinction due to growing demand in Chinese restaurants, which use the fins in a hugely popular soup.
Few places prize the gelatinous delicacy more than Hong Kong, where it is a staple at high-end restaurants and wedding banquets, a mark of affluence in a territory that accounts for as much as 80 percent of the world trade in fins.
Hong Kong was the largest importer of shark fin globally in 2007, buying about US$277 million worth of fins, or 10,209 tonnes, according to UN figures.
One kilogram from certain species can sell for US$120 or more.
The appetite for shark fin seems unlikely to wane, despite growing criticism online and among some couples who refuse to serve the soup at their weddings.
The US banned finning 10 years ago, but the new law closes a loophole that allowed it in the Pacific as long as sharks were not finned onboard a vessel and led to a booming clandestine industry. The bill does not ban the sale of shark fin, which is readily available in many upscale Chinese restaurants in the US.
Silvy Pun, a spokeswoman for the conservation group WWF Hong Kong, said the US move would have little impact on the trade in the territory.
“More than 80 countries actively contribute to Hong Kong’s shark fin imports and the US is only one of them,” she said.
“A lot more could be done, especially in terms of banning shark-slaughtering or at least imposing a legal limit on how many sharks can be killed each year,” she said.
Hong Kong’s government said it abides by restrictions on the trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. However, even the Hong Kong fisheries and conservation department serves shark’s fin soup at official events and has no plans to change the policy, a spokeswoman said.
Pun described Hong Kong’s position as “disappointing” and said she wanted other countries to follow the US example.
More than 50 local restaurants have signed on to a WWF campaign urging shark-fin free menus.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS