A single fin from rare species is worth thousands of dollars.
A proposed Canadian ban on importing shark fins for a traditional Chinese soup was narrowly defeated last month in Parliament, but the controversy surrounding the Asian delicacy has prompted two Centretown restaurants to remove it from their menus anyway.
A bill proposing to end imports of shark fins – introduced in 2011 by British Columbia NDP MP Fin Donnelly – was defeated in the House of Commons late last month by a margin of five votes.
For now, the soup that had been occasionally sold in Chinatown can still be legally prepared.
When the bill was introduced two years ago, diners in Centretown would have been able to order shark fin soup in classic Chinatown restaurants such as the Yangtze or Chu Shing.
But the two businesses, among the oldest Chinese restaurants in the city, no longer serve the soup.
“We (took the soup off the menu) because of the contentious nature of the issue,” says Yangtze manager Kim Ng. “There are still a few people who ask for it, but it’s not an everyday dish.”
Donnelly was “disappointed more Conservative MPs did not support this important legislation,” he said in a press release.
The Conservatives officially opposed the bill, but promised to introduce their own legislation on the issue in the near future.
Donnelly has a history of fighting for environmental causes.
His shark fin bill didn’t pass, but the awareness created around the issue – which has also been debated in several municipalities and provincial legislatures across Canada – appears to have had ripple effects in Ottawa.
The controversial issue is how shark fins are obtained for the soup. Fishermen that practise finning catch sharks, cut off their fins and then discard the rest.
Since the other parts of a shark are not worth nearly as much as its fins, it maximizes fishermen’s profits. A single fin from some rare species can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, according to Greenpeace Canada.
The shark is doomed to die once its fins are removed. Not being able to move properly without its fins, the shark drowns.
But shark finning is different from shark fishing.
In Canada, for example, fishing sharks is legal, but targeting only the shark’s fins is outlawed.
“One of the things we’re pushing for is to make sure fishermen bring the whole shark ashore,” says Charles Latimer, Greenpeace’s oceans campaigner in Canada. “That way, we physically limit the amount of sharks caught."
Greenpeace estimates the fins of 26 to 73 million sharks are sold worldwide each year, which means up to 8,000 sharks are being killed every hour.
Although Canada forbids finning in its waters, no country can properly control what fishermen do in international seas. That’s why Greenpeace supported Donnelly’s bill, Latimer says.
“The reason we support bills like (Fin Donnelly’s) is because banning the imports of shark fins to Canada would reduce the international demand for shark fins,” he says. “But those are only mitigating measures, while we push for more protection for sharks.”
Cultural barriers have proven difficult to overcome, however.
In Toronto, a bylaw that had forbidden the sale of shark fin soup was implemented last year but was overturned in November after local Chinese residents appealed saying the bylaw targeted the Chinese community in Toronto.
Ng, however, says traditions involving shark fin soup are changing.
“It used to be that the parents would have a say on the menus of weddings, and then shark fin soup would be present,” she says. “But now the people getting married usually choose . . . not to have shark fin soup.”