Shark fin soup: Young Asian's eating habits key to saving sharks

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>Nicole Hess <nhess

>Mon, 04 Jul 2005 10:41:38 -0700

> Young Asian's eating habits key to saving sharks

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>http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/07/03/2003262034

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Published on TaipeiTimes

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/07/03/2003262034

 

Young Asian's eating habits key to saving sharks

Shark's fin soup is a traditional dish at

weddings in Chinese communities, but can young

people be persuaded to forget antiquated

considerations of face and leave it off the menu?

 

 

AFP , SINGAPORE

Sunday, Jul 03, 2005,Page 9

 

It's been about 20 years since Michael Aw last

had shark's fin soup, but he'll never forget the

taste and texture of the pricey Asian delicacy.

 

" Eek, it's like eating fingernails and hair! "

says the Singapore-born marine environmentalist

who is based in Sydney but considers the world's

oceans his home -- and Asia's banquet tables his

battleground.

 

Aw is an activist at the forefront of a campaign

against the consumption of shark's fin soup,

which is little more than boiled cartilage, by

educating Asians, the youth in particular, about

the cruelty behind this mainstay of Chinese

cuisine.

 

Shark conservationists scored an important

victory last week when Hong Kong's brand-new

Disneyland, due to open in September, succumbed

to international public pressure and decided to

scrap the dish from its wedding banquet menu. The

US$3.2 billion theme park admitted it could not

find an " environmentally sustainable " source for

the fins.

 

Aw congratulated the entertainment empire for

the decision and said the Disneyland controversy

turned out to be a boon because " never before

have sharks received such global attention "

regarding the fin trade.

 

He called upon the Disney group to " develop an

alliance " with " like-minded individuals and

institutions to achieve the greater objective " of

discouraging shark's fin consumption.

 

Aw says there is no such thing as sustainable

sources for the dish. The fins are usually hacked

off captured live sharks, which are dumped back

into the sea where they bleed to death or get

devoured by other marine life.

 

Environmental activists say millions of sharks

are slaughtered every year through this practice

called " finning " to meet demand from Asian

restaurants and hotels, threatening species that

took eons to evolve with rapid extinction.

 

" In many areas in Southeast Asia, they are, so

to speak, regionally extinct, " says the

49-year-old, bespectacled former advertising man

with an easy smile who turns dead serious when

discussing the fate of sharks.

 

" The single most devastating reason for their

demise is the demand for shark's fin soup, " says

Aw, whose own ecological awakening began after he

took up scuba diving in 1981. His first

underwater encounter with the sleek and powerful

figure of a shark in the wild left him " in awe. "

 

" They are like the Ferraris of the ocean, " says

the conservationist who now makes a living as an

underwater photographer, author and publisher of

Singapore-based magazines Asian Geographic and

Scuba Diver, when he's not leading ecological

tours in places like the Galapagos Islands and

Antarctica.

 

Aw warns that if entire shark species are wiped

out, " the ocean is unbalanced " by the absence of

an important element in the marine food chain.

 

`Cruelty begets ill fortune'

 

Over a recent lunch of barbecued pork and wanton

noodles in Singapore -- he no longer eats fish --

Aw tells reporters that shark's fin has no real

nutritional value despite its high cost. But for

mainland and overseas Chinese, they are a symbol

of prosperity. Upmarket restaurants in Singapore

charge US$50 or more for a single-serving bowl.

 

Nowhere is the dish consumed more conspicuously

than at Chinese wedding banquets across Asia

where " braised superior shark's fin " soup comes

after the appetizers, signaling the start of

serious eating.

 

The soup is thick, chunky and bland -- and like

another expensive delicacy, abalone, is eaten as

much for its texture as its taste -- so diners

usually spike it with a few drops of red vinegar.

 

Aw is the founding director of

OceanNEnvironment, a charity organization

registered in Australia to protect coral reefs,

promote bio-diversity and reduce the impact of

man-made pollution through research and

expeditions. Much of the money spent is his own,

earned through his work as a photographer, author

and publisher.

 

He heads a " Say No " to shark's fin campaign in

Singapore and Malaysia, which also has a large

Chinese population, creating educational leaflets

and videos, and organizing roadshows and school

visits to get his message across. He plans to

take his campaign to China.

 

According to conservation group Sea Shepherd,

the booming Chinese economy is proving to be

deadly for sharks because it has spurred greater

demand for fins. " As a result, the oceans are

literally being scoured clean of sharks. Poachers

are invading national marine parks like the

Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and Cocos Island in

Costa Rica to catch sharks, " its website says.

 

Sea Shepherd estimates that over 7,257 tonnes of

shark fins are processed each year -- and 181,487

tonnes of shark carcasses are discarded at sea.

It says 18 species are already listed as

endangered by the International Union for the

Conservation of Nature.

 

" Every year humans slaughter over 100 million

sharks yet we depict them as vicious and

blood-thirsty killers, " the group asserts. " No

more than 12 people a year are killed by sharks

worldwide. "

 

But in largely ethnic Chinese Singapore, the

absence of shark's fin soup at a wedding menu can

start guests' tongues wagging about how " cheap "

the couple or their parents are. Even

environmentally conscious newlyweds find it

difficult to avoid serving shark's fin soup.

Otherwise, the family might lose face.

 

A Singaporean civil servant who recently married

a naval officer says they had contemplated not

serving shark's fin at their wedding in a luxury

hotel, but did not have the heart to go ahead.

 

" You don't want to put your parents in that kind

of position, " she says, but expresses hope that

" after this generation [the practice] might die

off. "

 

Like most ethnic Chinese kids in Asia, Aw grew

up expecting shark's fin soup to be served on

special occasions.

 

" Mum used to order the dish especially during

Chinese New Year, birthdays and weddings, " he

says. But at his own 1996 wedding, Aw demanded

that the dish be taken off the menu, and whenever

he is served shark's fin soup at dinners, he

seizes the occasion to wage culinary propaganda.

 

" I will politely decline and give a short spiel

on the wastage and cruelty in procurement of

shark fins. In fact in Chinese culture, cruelty

begets ill fortune, bad luck and a sentence to

hell after death! " he says.

 

Crabs are OK

 

Aw's travel schedule is daunting. After a holiday

in Fiji with his wife and son in January, he went

to Phuket, Thailand to view damage caused by last

December's earthquake and tsunami. Then came

trips to South Australia, Bangkok, the Maldives

and Malaysia. For the rest of the year, his work

will take him to South Africa, Fiji again,

Tahiti, China and the US. Early next year Aw will

lead a nature tour of Antarctica.

 

Aw's advertising and publishing skills will come

in handy since it takes a lot of media savvy to

change the mindsets of consumers and fight the

formidable business interests behind the shark's

fin industry.

 

He used to do ad campaigns for clients like

consumer products giant Sanyo, diamond producer

DeBeers and funeral home Singapore Casket, whose

slogan was: " We'll be the last to let you down! "

 

He believes working for a total ban on finning won't work.

 

" Shark's fin will only become more expensive.

The Mafia will profit, just like drugs, " he says,

stressing that self-restraint by consumers is the

key.

 

In his campaign to reduce the consumption of

shark's fin soup, Aw has largely given up on the

older generation of mainland and overseas

Chinese, counting on younger people instead to

take up his cause.

 

" I believe in measurable results. Thus I hope to

recruit 10,000 young ambassadors for sharks in

Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and China by 2007. "

 

While Aw bemoans the negative image of sharks

since the the 1975 hit movie Jaws, he has called

his young children Jonah Aw Seng and Joelle Aw

Seng so that letters in their names spell out the

title of the film.

 

He likens shark's fin eating to smoking, and

hopes to have the same impact among the youth as

successful anti-tobacco campaigns -- although he

once did ads for Dunhill cigarettes.

 

" It is now seen as uncool, unsociable to smoke.

I hope to achieve the same kind of behavior

change, attitude change towards consuming shark

fins. "

 

After years of photographing sharks and other

fish in their natural environment, Aw's eating

habits have changed, but he is not a

fundamentalist in his food choices.

 

" I don't eat fish, but do enjoy crabs, " he says.

1999-2005 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.

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