Say No to Sharkfin!

Long time ago, I have already decided not to have sharkfin in the menu of my wedding day.

If you haven't already know about shark finning, here is what it is:

Shark finning means cutting off the sharks' fins, the only valuable part of its body, and flinging the poor thing back into sea.

The shark then undergoes a slow and painful death.

Needless to say, it’s a common knowledge that this is a cruel act and that the shark's population is on the verge of extinction.

All fishes are friends :) - Sharks from Finding Nemo

For the Chinese, serving shark fin soup at their wedding dinner is in the tradition. Parents especially, are often aghast at the notion of not serving this valuable food at the wedding of their sons or daughters.

If you do not serve sharkfins, does it means that your wedding is incomplete?
If you do not serve sharkfins, does it means that you are a cheapskate?
Is it wrong to replace sharkfins with other soup/food which might be more expensive that the shark fins itself? Such as scallops and suckling pigs perhaps?

There's a forum for those couples who opt not to serve sharkfins. Check out their opinions here.

Here's a response from the forum which I particularly like:
 "Initially my in-laws disagree, worry what guests will think. I responded, "Guests come to wish for our happiness and celebrate with us OR come to eat shark fin to justify their ang pow to us?". At the end, the soup (without sharkfins) was great.. and was the highlight of all 8 course menu"

Here's more reasons for not serving shark fin from this site:

So you CAN save a few sharks today by not serving them for your wedding! 
When the buying stops, the killing stops.

Like Michael Jackson said from Man in the Mirror:

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change)
(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)

There is also misconception that sharks are dangerous, are man-killers and hence, deserve to be finned and boiled into a soup.

Fact #1: Each year there are about 50 to 70 confirmed shark attacks and 5 to 15 shark-attack fatalities around the world. While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands. Between 30 and 100 million sharks die each year.

Fact #2:
Sharks-fin has no nutritional value is actually harmful since they bleach and chlorinate the fin to alter the colour and to get rid of the smell. All the taste comes from the stock that is used to make the soup and not from the shark cartilage – which is tasteless.


With the facts provided, let's us rethink the common reasons of serving shark-fins, it's because it's a glamour thing or because this dish is delicious now that you know that shark fin is tasteless and harmful.


Here's an awesome article written by Marcus Chan on the peril of shark-fin soup. 

Here's the video of an internationally award winning documentary by Rob Stewart:

Video of NBA athlete Yao Ming (姚明) addressing shark fin soup: