276 environmental and animal protection organizations and renowned conservationists have recently co-signed a letter to Maxim’s Caterer Limited, a well-known Asian food provider that claimed in 2017, “We take responsibility in sustainable sourcing while continuing to respond to our customers’ changing preferences. We will also closely monitor new environmental factors, and review our strategies responsibly.”
Maxim’s restaurants continue to serve shark fin via some 50 outlets across Hong Kong. There are at least 76 species of shark whose fins are being consumed by Hong Kong diners, of which nearly one third are under some level of threat of extinction. Over 200 companies have committed to a WWF-Hong Kong sponsored “no shark-fin” pledge. Numerous other sectors of the corporate, academic, and government world have made similar commitments, as have various jurisdictions in Asia and worldwide.
Shark finning is the practice of hacking fins from sharks, too often live sharks whose living bodies are then dumped overboard to die horribly – I’ll spare you the details. Sharks reproduce slowly, making the unyielding and often illegal assault on their numbers not “sustainable,” as many shark species in trade are being killed faster than they can reproduce. Sharks are apex predators whose presence helps to maintain a healthy environment. Shark finning is part of a suite of actions that are destroying the very industry that depends upon healthy populations of fish.
Late last year, the once common blue shark (Prionace glauca) was placed on Appendix II of the UN’s Convention on Migratory Species, a possible precursor to a similar listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which would place controls on trade that could, if insufficient (given the poacher-supplied black market), lead to a ban on any commercial trade.
Maxim’s claims to serve blue shark fins because that species is at “lower risk” than other species. That does not mean no risk, of course, and it has been over a dozen years since there has been a comprehensive assessment of blue shark population size, and so the only extant data can’t be relied upon to justify any killing of this species.
The letter contains a wealth of peer-reviewed documented evidence of unregulated killing of blue sharks and of a continuing decline in sexually mature individuals, a sign that the species is in trouble.
It is past time for Maxim’s to move to the right side of history and ban shark fin from the menu. Letters can be sent to: Michael Wu, CEO Maxim’s Caterers Limited, Director of Dairy Farm Group, Director of Jardines Group, 18/F, Maxim’s Centre, No.17 Cheung Shun Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry