USA Consumption of Shark Fin Soup

I had no idea shark fin soup was so prevalent in the US. The following is a list of just Washington DC based restaurants that serve shark fin soup. I can only guess how that translates to a national list.

http://www.awionline.org/whales/news/DC_re...ark-finsoup.htm

Perhaps what is most concerning is that the US is not considered poor and uneducated. If patrons in DC continue to consume shark fin soup (one would assume if they have the money to afford it, they likely have the education to know better) then this suggests little hope that education in China will make much of an impact at all on shark finning:( If this is true, no shark poplution will last long enough for the message to take hold and change behavior.

I for one will not dine at a restaurant that serves shark fin soup. It would be very cool if we could build a list of all US and Canada restaurants that serve shark fin soup. Our members in Europe could do the same. We then publish this list and petition the restuarants to drop shark fin soup.

Anyone know of a more comprehensive list similar to the one above?

This might be something that members of wetpixel and other groups could coordinate and accomplish pretty quickly. For example, myself and others in the Boston area could split up the list of Chinese restaurants in the area and either call and ask about sharkfin soup or actually walk in and check out the menus. Take-out menus could be photocopied or photographed to confirm that soup is offered, and some kind of database or online list could be assembled that anyone could peruse. The lists could be also be forwarded to media and/or channeled through various NGOs who have media officers for just this kind of thing.

One potential problem, though, is these restaurants could simply drop the soup from the menu but still offer it to whomever asks for it. I suspect this dish is something that most people know they want to eat well before they walk into a the restaurant, especially if it's a special occasion that calls for eating this soup. So the well-informed and well-meaning anti-finning folks could be chowing down on hot & sour soup, content that shark fin soup is off the menu thanks to their hard work, while the Chinese family at the next table could order the soup and no one would be the wiser. And obviously the U.S. market is a drop in the bucket compared to China.

Anyhow, this does seem worthwhile, if only to put more pressure on the fin industry and draw more attention to the issue. Ultimately, we may have to hope that U.S. seafood dealers become so worried about getting busted holding fins from protected species, as was the case last year when DNA testing showed that a N.Y. dealer had fins from basking, white, and dusky sharks, that they simply refuse to deal in fins in any way, shape, or form. If we can do anything to spook the U.S. industry, it certainly can't hurt the sharks' chances.

Cutting off or disrupting the supply may be more feasible than trying to convince a billion people that they ought not eat something.