{"id":40077000,"date":"2018-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/china-dialogue-ocean-staging.darkbluehq.com\/uncategorized\/2917-pressure-mounts-to-take-blue-shark-off-the-menu\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T10:44:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T09:44:35","slug":"2917-pressure-mounts-to-take-blue-shark-off-the-menu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/ocean\/2917-pressure-mounts-to-take-blue-shark-off-the-menu\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure mounts to take blue shark off the menu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With a quarter of shark species now facing extinction, the sale and consumption of shark fins has become indefensible to most people following public awareness campaigns and the protection of some species. But in Hong Kong, the hub of the global trade, there is still one familiar refrain: \u201cwe only trade in abundant blue shark fins,\u201d merchants and caterers say, \u201cnot endangered species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Hofford, a campaigner with pressure group WildAid, calls it the industry\u2019s \u201cget-out clause,\u201d and it\u2019s the official line taken by the city\u2019s seafood traders as well as by Maxim\u2019s, the city\u2019s largest chain of Chinese restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxim\u2019s Caterers, run by managing director Wei Kuo Wu, is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group, a British conglomerate. They are a licensee of global brands such as Starbucks Coffee, Ipuddo Ramen and The Cheesecake factory. In 2016, company profits were US$848 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At over 50 outlets citywide, Maxim\u2019s offers what they call \u201csustainably sourced\u201d shark fin dishes from blue sharks, a species listed as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). But a growing number of marine biologists, fisheries experts and green groups are saying that blue sharks have come under unprecedented pressures since 2005 \u2013 the year they were last assessed by the IUCN \u2013 and will soon join the endangered list if fishermen don’t stop targeting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter<\/a> addressed to Maxim\u2019s, WildAid collected the signatures of over 250 scientists, academics and environmental organisations. As well as celebrities including Sir Richard Branson, Dr Sylvia Earle and Dr Jane Goodall, the signatories are a veritable who\u2019s who of Hong Kong and mainland China\u2019s foremost marine scientists. WildAid\u2019s shark fin campaign has also won the support of Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, and the group\u2019s latest ad campaign in Hong Kong has been fronted by local actor and director Bowie Wu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more exhaustive is the breadth of research catalogued to substantiate their concerns about blue sharks, now the most frequently caught species among the 100 million sharks estimated by a Dalhousie University study<\/a> to be killed worldwide each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WildAid
WildAid activists demonstrate against the shark fin trade outside a Maxim’s restaurant in Central, Hong Kong (Image: Alex Hofford)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blue sharks under threat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Recent peer-reviewed research<\/a> shows that blue shark numbers more than halved in areas of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans between the late 1980s and early 2000s, with year-on-year declines up to 6% globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other species fuelling the shark trade, such as scalloped hammerheads and oceanic whitetips, were brought under CITES Appendix II protection in 2013, thus prohibiting their harvest. Since then, blue sharks have become the dominant species in the shark trade, putting it in peril.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trouble with their current listing, is that it was last assessed in 2005 using studies published no later than 1999. A lot has changed in the past 19 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing picture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Globally, there are calls for the reassessment of blue sharks\u2019 status. Last October, Samoa’s proposal to list the blue shark as under threat was accepted by the 12th conference on the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), held in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although measures offered by CMS listing are limited to awareness raising and promoting international cooperation, it is considered a springboard to legally-binding protections under the more influential Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which will be hosted next year by Sri Lanka, co-sponsor of Samoa\u2019s blue shark proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n

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