I love Chinese cuisine — China's cuisines, I should say — but it's been several years since I last ate shark's fin in any shape or form. It's just not on.
The brutal hunting of sharks to the point of extinction was something I was already aware of and deplored, but that awareness was crystalised into sharp focus by the movie Sharkwater (check out the trailer here).
So I was really pleased to hear that the Sharksavers campaign has now reached Hong Kong and other Chinese communities.
"I Pledge Not to Eat Shark Fin Soup" - Campaign Video - English from Shark Savers on Vimeo.
It's about time the campaign reached Japan too. This has been one of the major markets for shark fin for a long time. Here's a place in Ginza that has no qualms about advertising its specialty...
The photo doesn't really give a sense of the scale of this shark's tail — it's over a meter high. The sign says it was taken from a 14-meter basking shark caught in 1988 off Norway.
This sample lunch display gives you an idea...
Full-scale banquets are a lot fancier and pricier:
No, I can't tell you if this place is any good — or if the food is worth those prices.
So what about bluefin? I've got to say I've added maguro in all its various guises to my no-no list. And I've also got to say that (being human) I have sometimes erred from the straight and narrow of my principles.
