Shark Fin Soup 'Should Be Banned In Australia'
A top Sydney chef says shark fin soup should be banned from Australian
restaurants because the demand for the delicacy is driving sharks to
extinction.
Dank Street Depot’s Jared Ingersoll said serving shark fin dishes in Australia is promoting an unsustainable industry.
"Stocks of shark and shark fin are depleting and unless we take a stand and say no to this product it's going to run out," he said.
Mr Ingersoll said as well as the restaurant ban, the importation of the shark fins from other countries should be stopped.
"Buying it in from other countries, we're actually not solving the problems because we're shifting the problem to someone else’s front door," he said.
Shark finning — the brutal but lucrative practice of cutting fins off live sharks and throwing them back into the ocean to slowly drown — is banned in Australia.
But Australia still imports 10,000kg of dried shark fins every year from countries that have not banned finning, including China and The Philippines, which equates to an estimated 26,000 sharks.
ninemsn has found that dried sharks fins are widely available in Sydney's Chinatown with price tags up to $1400 per kilogram and $158 a bowl of shark fin soup...
