No More Shark Fin Soup At State Banquets, Says China

New York Times:

China said Tuesday that it would prohibit official banquets from serving shark fin soup, a pricey and popular delicacy blamed for a sharp decline in global shark populations.

Read the whole story at New York Times

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Comments

[oregonian68]

09:24 AM on 07/05/2012

I notice the opposition is complaining about the wasted money. What percent of the Asian population cares about the fact their palettes are literally causing the extinction of sharks worldwide? Think about this, especially my fellow republicans. Sharks have been here since before the dinosaurs. They were designed to be the ocean's top predator, with good reason. They not only have spare teeth, but spare reproductive systems. Obviously they are highly necessary to the ecosystem. What right do they have to deplete our oceans this way and why is nothing meaningful being done about it? Are we that greedy that we can't take punitive trade measures against these criminals? I boil with anger when I see them throw sharks (including whale sharks) overboard to make more room for fins on their ships. There are literally more sharks being killed in this way than are reproducing. Thew west needs to put a stop to this.

[artleads]

01:01 PM on 07/04/2012

Whoa! Keep it up, world! We need lots more of this.

[oregonian68]

09:27 AM on 07/05/2012

The Chinese are merely placating the west with this meaningless gesture. Nothing less than an outright ban on finning by Asian nations will save the world's sharks. It needs to be done NOW, not in three years.

[artleads]

10:27 AM on 07/05/2012

It is true that much more needs to be done, and much faster. This is true for all environmental issues too. Part of the problem is that we don't structure the alternative position very well. Rio-20 was not just a failure of large nations; it was a failure of thought and system by so-called progressives.