Good shark news out of China?

Hopefully this sight will soon disappear!

It seems like the tide is slowly, slowly turning. According to "Chinadaily.com.cn" About 6 percent of luxury hotels in three major Chinese cities have stopped serving shark fin.

The article further states that In Beijing, 132 hotels completed the phone questionnaire between Nov 20 and Dec 12. Only 12 hotels, 9 percent, said they do not serve shark fin. A similar survey of 131 Beijing hotels conducted a year ago found only one hotel that did not serve shark fin, Wang Xue, chief coordinator of the survey, said on Saturday.

Granted, it's a very small step, but especially viewed together with the recent announcement by the Chinese government that they will stop serving shark fin soup at state dinners, it's a sign that the Chinese are becoming aware of the international view on shark finning and are starting to respond.

You can read the whole story here.

We at Shark Diver hope that by sharing this article and acknowledging the positive steps they take, we also send a signal to China that we don't just criticize them, but also give credit when they do something right.


Cheers,

Martin Graf
Managing Director
Shark Diver


 

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

No more Shark Fin Soup in China?

Yesterday the New York Times reported that China said Tuesday that it would prohibit official banquets from serving shark fin soup, an expensive and popular delicacy blamed for a sharp decline in global shark populations.

Full article 

Will pictures like this soon be a thing of the past?

Alex Hofford/European Pressphoto Agency

 It looks like years of efforts to raise awareness about Shark Finning is starting to pay off. This news comes just a couple of months after the media in Hong Kong struck out against the global anti shark fin campaigns, characterizing them as "anti Chinese" and "discriminating against their eating culture". While official state dinners use just a tiny fraction of all Shark Fins consumed, this announcement still sends a signal, that China is starting to change it's attitude towards Shark Conservation 

Cheers,

Martin Graf
Dive Operations Manager
Shark Diver/Horizon
Isla Guadalupe, Mexico

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Hillary Clinton on China- Trust me, it relates to sharks

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently gave her first speech about China.

She said that while human rights issues are important:

"our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis"

In other words, the Obama government and the Clinton state department aren't going to pressure China on human rights issues because doing so will interfere from more important things, like the global financial meltdown.

While I don't necessarily disagree with this statement, if you read between the lines it's bad news for the shark conservation community.

As most of you know, China is the largest market for shark fin soup, an industry that kills (by some estimates) as many as 100 million sharks a year(many, including the shark diver, question the validity of this number, but at the very least we're talking about a LOT of sharks). It's one of the least sustainable fisheries in the history of the planet, and there's little that can stop it other than direct pressure from the U.S. Government.

If the Obama government isn't willing to pressure China about how they're treating PEOPLE.... there's very little chance of pressuring them about how they treat SHARKS.

The shark diver recently wrote a post about how the economic crisis means fewer humans killed by sharks... but it may mean more sharks killed by humans.

-David

China's Largest Shopping Site Bans Sale of Shark Fin Products

Editors Note: Starting January 1, 2009 we attempted to purchase sharks fin via the Alibaba.com website. After 7 days we were able to source over 80,000lbs of sharks fin from nine of eleven sellers we contacted in a classic loophole.

This represents a massive roll out failure on the part of Taobo.com.cn and sister company Alibaba.com.

For now we have given them an "F" and ask that you disregard the following press release.

BEIJING, Dec. 19 -- The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW-www.ifaw.org.cn) congratulates Taobao (www.taobo.com.cn), China's largest shopping website for its ban on the sale of shark fin products on the site. Taobao.com announced to its 400 million online members that all shark fin products will be banned from trade on Taobao.com starting 1, January 2009.

The announcement was made as part of a campaign IFAW and Taobao collaboratively initiated to combat online wildlife crime. In the unprecedented collaboration, IFAW and Taobao.com share information about online illegal wildlife trade and jointly raise consumer awareness about the detrimental impact wildlife trade has on species in the wild.

Asia is the main market for shark fin products. In major cities in China, shark fin soup is readily available on the menu in restaurants. With the coming of Chinese New Year Festivals, shark fin soup consumption will significantly increase.

However, fueled by big profit margins and the increase in shark fin consumption, overfishing of sharks is threatening more than 50 percent of the shark species with extinction. As top predators in the ocean, sharks play an important role in keeping ecosystem balance. However, an estimated 100 million sharks are killed globally each year.

"Consuming shark fin is not only harmful to the marine biodiversity, but promotes the cruel practice of shark finning, where sharks had their fins cut off then thrown back into the ocean, still alive, die a horribly painful death." said Grace Gabriel, IFAW's Asia Regional Director. "It is our choice as consumers to say No to shark fin products. Consuming wildlife equals killing."

Taobao's decision to ban shark fin was also applauded by its users. In an online message, a Hangzhou netizen condemns the shark fin trade by posting shocking pictures of shark finning. According to this posting, 5000 Kilos of shark fin are consumed daily in Beijing alone. Active Taobao users also call on others to report online shark fin sales to site management when the notice takes effect in January.

Peter Pueschel, IFAW's Program Manager hailed the move. "This is really amazing and wonderful that the leading cyber market provider in the biggest shark fin consumer nation bans shark fins. What a strong signal to other auction sites and governments in other parts of the world!"

White Sharks in Shandong China?

Almost certainly.

One year ago this news report surfaced about a massive shark taken off the shores of Shandong China.

The story was being used at the time as a propaganda piece:

"A super large shark, which is 4.5 meters long, 2.6 meters round and weighs 630 kilograms, was caught by fishermen in Rizhao, east China's Shandong province on Monday morning. Such a big shark is extremely rare. It indicates the coastal waters' quality has been improved."

If you look at the area on a map, the shark was likely taken in the Bohai Sea which makes us wonder what white sharks are doing in this area in the first place?

China-Rare Rainmaker Fish

Last week a rare if not almost extinct fish was celebrated by local fishermen...and then promptly sold and eaten.

Turns out the swim bladder (not the whole fish) is worth it's weight in gold and this particular fish species called the Bahaba flavolabiata has not been seen in this region of China for almost 50 years.

The fisherman who caught this rare "Last of the Mohicans" is set to make almost 1 million Yuan or close to $150,000 US.

In April 2007, a fisherman in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong province, netted a 49-kg Chinese bahaba and sold to a restaurant for 580,000 yuan. The restaurant cooked the fish meat but has kept the dried fish maw (mouth), tagging it at 2 million yuan with words "not for sale."

It is into this environment that the worldwide shark fin market is pouring the oceans sharks into. With scarcity-pricing for rare animals used for just their maws, fins and swim bladders runs at all time highs.

China Olympics: Speed Whale Shark Champions

China Daily, Shengzuo--As The Peoples Republic of China prepares to host the 2008 Olympics,China's Demonstration Sports Committee invited the International press corps to preview it's latest team sport-"Competitive Speed Whale Shark".

With it's early roots in logging this latest demonstration sport will be included in this years 2008 Olympic Games to promote the local sport and to gauge interest and support.

Speed, accuracy and safety are hallmarks of these three day medal events that include the complete disassembly of 60 foot Whale Sharks by sweaty teams of "Sawyers".

"It is our hope the world will adopt this sport for future Olympic Games before we run out of sharks" said Liu bo Xiang, Team Captain Alibaba.com, recent medalist, and three time "Sawyer Champion".

The following Underwater Onion was brought to you by Shark Diver.

Seriously, the Olympics would be a great place to highlight the fact that 80% of the worlds 100 million shark fins go to China.