Hong Kongers repelled by sharks' fins drying in street

Dec 9, 2010, 5:31 GMT

Hong Kong - Conservationists and residents have protested over the sight of thousands of sharks' fins left out to dry every day in a Hong Kong street, a news report said Thursday.

Photos have circulated on the internet and in newspapers of a footpath in the city's Western district covered with freshly sliced fins left to dry in the winter sun.

Residents and neighbours say they have complained about the stench and sight of the fins but with no response from police or government departments, according to the South China Morning Post.

Andy Cornish, director of conservation for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hong Kong, told the newspaper: 'Who knows what ocean they were caught from and whether they were poached illegally? We'll probably never know.'

The district where the fins are left out to dry is a hub of the dried-fish trade. Hong Kong handles between 50 and 80 per cent of the global trade in shark's fin, much of it bound for China.

In Hong Kong, however, shark's fin has lost popularity because of a movement against the cruelty of the trade which leaves millions of finned sharks to die and endangers shark species.

A survey in October found three out of four young Hong Kong people no longer want shark's fin - a traditional wedding dish - served at their wedding banquets.

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