Malaysia: No slurping this soup

Shark fin soup is off the menu for some.
Meng Yew Choong The Star 7 Jun 11;

KIRK Lee describes himself as the typical Chinaman who loves good food, until he saw a Youtube clip that stunned him about how shark fin soup is made. “Being Chinese and a lover of good food, I’ve always loved shark fin soup, which I only get to savour during wedding banquets. The wealthier folks would of course order this dish on a more regular basis, but most people don’t because it is pricey,’’ said the freelance swimming instructor who is also an avid scuba diver.

“Even though I was a diver, I continued with my craze without any guilt, and I rationalised it by thinking that the shark is already dead anyway, and my mom had taught me not to waste food. After all, if I don’t eat it, someone else would, so I might as well enjoy this great soup,’’ said Lee, who subsequently stumbled upon a clip shot by divers in the Philippines.

The clip (youtube.com/watch?v= xysF2zyxn-s&feature=related) so moved Lee that he gave up eating the dish, and is now an ardent advocate of shark conservation.

“It is about this juvenile whale shark, which is one of my favourite fish to watch on my diving trip. It is the biggest fish in the world, and on Feb 15 last year, a group of divers found one of these gentle creatures on the ocean floor, belly up, minus all its fins. The fish is still alive, and slowly bleeding, and the group decided to bring the fish ashore in order to shorten its suffering. After watching the clip, I could not sleep, was up the whole morning thinking about it. It never crossed my mind how shark fins were obtained, harvested and at what rate the killing was taking place.”

Three days later, Lee started the Save Our Sharks From A Bowl Of Soup (SOSFABOS) on Facebook (facebook.com/SOS.SaveOurSharks). Since beginning his crusade, Lee speaks freely on how cruel and unsustainable shark fin extraction can be. “The fish is alive when their fins are cut off. Without the pectoral and dorsal fins, the shark can no longer swim, sinks to the seabed, and eventually dies. Given this, rejecting shark fin soup is not a waste because every time you consume it, you are contributing to the cruelty and pushing sharks ever nearer to extinction.”

Why sharks?

Sharks are slow reproducing creatures and reach sexual maturity late, thus making them vulnerable to extinction. An estimated 73 million sharks are harvested each year solely for their fins, with some being fished out before breeding age. Sharks perform a useful role in the marine ecosystem. It keeps other larger prey fish in check before these wipe the area clean of other smaller fish. If all large sharks are removed from the food chain, the oceanic ecosystem would suffer some form of imbalance.

Early this year, Lee persuaded a group of celebrities such as Amber Chia, Fauziah Latiff and Patrick Teoh to volunteer their services to produce a public service announcement which is currently airing on local free-to-air channels like NTV7 as well as Youtube. Lee’s friend, Alicia Tan got her producer friend Linus Chung to direct the effort.

The campaign is not just being waged on cyberspace. Last year, TV host Xandria Ooi and her musician husband Yuri Wong dropped the dish from their wedding dinner. If you had attended some recent Chinese wedding dinners, you might have come across some very striking cards designed by Tan, an avid diver who shares Lee’s vision. Tan started the My Wedding Saves Sharks movement (saveshark.blogspot.com) in response to what she felt was a need to educate others about sharks.

Tan, 30, who got married last February, dropped shark fin soup from her wedding dinner but placed a card at each table explaining the absence of the customary delicacy. Placement of such cards at wedding dinners had been started by organisations such as WildAid (wildaid.org) years ago.

With this method, Tan and her husband shared their concern with guests in a tasteful manner, though she was chided by her elders who thought the effort was somewhat offensive. “I had to stick to my guns as my wedding has to reflect who I really am, and it cannot feature shark fin soup as that would be going against what I stand for.”

Since then, friends have asked for her help in designing similar cards for their weddings. “If I am not approached, I sometimes take the initiative to broach the subject with my friends who are about to get married, to see whether we could somehow work together. I think 20 couples have placed these cards at their wedding dinners so far.”

Elsewhere, the anti-shark fin soup movement is gaining ground. In April 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland dropped the dish from its wedding banquet menu following pressure from environmental groups. Seven months later, Hong Kong University banned shark fin from being consumed within its campus. In the United States, California is considering banning the sale and distribution of shark fins. If the enactment is passed, the state would join Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and the US Territory of Guam in banning the product. Island states like Palau, the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as Maldives already have legislative protection for the endangered fish.

Even international celebrities are lending their weight to the campaign, with faces such as US basketball star Yao Ming, director Ang Lee, and Malaysia’s very own Datuk Michelle Yeoh speaking out against the chiefly Chinese habit of associating luxury and prestige with shark fin consumption. The race is to make the habit of consuming fins extinct, before sharks go that way.

For more on the anti-shark fin soup movement, go to sharktruth.com and sharksavers.org.