By Kim Tae-jong
Major international hotel chains have generally stopped serving shark’s fin soup at their Chinese restaurants. But local hotels are turning a blind eye to such moves because the luxury cuisine is one of the most popular and high-end items at their Chinese restaurants.
Five-star hotels here with Chinese restaurants, including Lotte, Westin Chosun, Seoul Plaza, Shilla, and Sheraton Grande Walkerhill, serve shark’s fin soup, despite growing calls to ban the delicacy.
“It’s a very popular item, and therefore it’s hard all of sudden to remove or replace it on our menus,” said an official from a hotel in downtown Seoul, who declined to be named.
Once a dish for Ming Dynasty emperors, it has become a representative choice at Chinese restaurants worldwide over the last several decades.
But its consumption has been discouraged due to concerns over the contraction of the shark population and the inhumane way sharks are slaughtered. Animal rights groups have launched various campaigns to oppose people eating shark’s fin.
“People only remove the fins of the sharks and then toss them back into the sea. But the sharks are most often still alive but unable to swim. They slowly sink toward the bottom and are eaten alive by other fish,” said Lee Won-bok, president of the Korea Association for Animal Protection (KAAP).
Sharks are caught ruthlessly, regardless of age, size and species, to only take their fins, which have become the most significant cause of dramatic drops in shark populations worldwide, he added.
According to KAAP, about 76 million sharks are killed annually for their fins. This has led some shark populations to drop by as much as 90 percent in the last few decades, bringing some species to near-extinction.
But one pound of dried shark’s fin can retail for $300 or more, which has made it hard to properly regulate the cash-cow business.
“To protect sharks, the most effective way is to ban shark’s fin dishes at restaurants and reduce the demand,” Lee said.
KAAP will send letters to local hotels to call for the ban of shark’s fin dishes and hold protests near properties, he said.
In this regard, some U.S. states and the European Union have banned collecting, selling and serving shark’s fin, and major hotel operators such as the Peninsula Hotels and Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts have stopped serving shark’s fin soup. The three largest supermarket chains in Singapore have also stopped selling shark’s fin, citing sustainability concerns.