Losing the taste for Shark Fin soup

The influence of policies and campaigns

Two recent initiatives by the Chinese government could have reduced demand: an anti-smuggling campaign over a six-month period in 2011–2012, and President Xi Jinping’s recent frugality campaign, which is affecting the consumption by officials and other Chinese elites of luxury seafood.

The anti-smuggling campaign would not have focused upon trade in protected or prohibited shark species; there are virtually none of these (last year’s CITES listings will not take effect until September 2014). However, smuggling of high-value goods is also used to avoid customs taxes. This clamp down could temporarily have shut down shark fin trade, with repercussions upon domestic consumption in China (which would also explain the reported new interest in receiving invoices from traders at fish landing sites).

The government’s crack-down on corruption and extravagance by officials, including prohibiting shark fin soup at official functions, and preventing gifts of other luxury items, have reportedly caused huge declines of revenues at Beijing’s most upmarket restaurants as well as a crash in sales of imported high-end consumer goods. However, China surely does not have a sufficiently large government service for this to significantly influence national utilisation of these luxuries. That leaves us to consider whether the world’s current economic problems are throwing sharks a lifeline, or the campaigns to reduce shark fin consumption are really taking effect – or perhaps a combination of the two.

An early WildAid survey in China discovered that 76 percent of the population did not understand what shark fin soup contains and highlighted the importance of raising public awareness of its impacts. In 2006, SOSF’s successful television special on marine conservation, co-produced with WildAid, reached an estimated audience of 200 million Chinese viewers, and China’s most popular celebrity, the National Basketball Association superstar Yao Ming, pledged to stop eating shark fin soup. WildAid, with SOSF support, subsequently exhibited 20 giant billboards around Beijing featuring Yao with sharks and the message: ‘When the buying stops the killing can too’. These 20 billboards were seen by 1.1 million commuters every day. A follow-up survey in 2008 found that 55 percent of those interviewed had seen and remembered the campaign. Of these, 94 percent said it had made them aware of the problems;

82 percent had reduced or stopped eating shark fin; and 89 percent said shark fin should be banned or regulated. A second documentary featuring top musi­cian, Liu Huan, broadcast on television in 2008 was also shown 60 times a day on 2,600 video billboards in Beijing, reaching an audience of about 33 million a year. By 2010, public service announcements on shark fin were being distributed widely throughout China, reaching up to one billion people every week on screens in airports, on trains and subways, in com­mercial buildings and on street corners.

Other conservation bodies have mounted similar exercises on a smaller scale (leading to cries of an anti-Chinese conspiracy by seafood traders, whose businesses are undeniably suffering). So, have the shark conservationists won the day?

Well, this does look like a (partial) success story, of which SOSF and its partners can justifiably be proud. However, I don’t believe this is a clear ‘win’ yet. A Beijing restaurant survey in December 2013 found that more than half were still serving shark fin and largely unaware of the crack-down on shark fin at government functions. Most of the population of China outside Beijing and other major city centres still have no idea why shark fin soup is such a serious environmental and wildlife problem. We have seen shark fin markets dip before during an economic downturn, and then recover again when matters improve. With a few notable exceptions, management is still lacking in most target and bycatch shark fisheries (for meat and liver oil, as well as fins), and these continue to drive depletion of shark stocks. Most shark finning regulations have loopholes that can allow finning to continue, and many key shark fishing countries have not yet adopted any finning regulations or shark management plans. Many shark species are threatened with extinction and would need decades to recover, even if fishing pressure was lifted immediately. It is far too soon to relax and congratulate ourselves on having protected sharks because of a reduction in shark fin soup consumption, although this is a great way to end our first decade. Saving Sharks, and Saving Our Seas is a longer and more complicated task than this.