Freezing Shark Fin Soup!

Yet another post I haven't got around to writing: Hong Kong's anti-shark-fin-soup movement!

I've been meaning to for a long time and, to this end, have a wealth of photographs on the various protests and actions I've witnessed over the years - they're being very slick and clever with how they're going about it - only those are some of the photos which vanished into the bowels of Keith's new storage system and I don't have the computer wherewithall to find them again.

 Apart from this one!

But this is not my post on this movement!  Here I'm just saying "Kudos!" to these Shark Loving Folk because they've done such a good job informing people of the cause. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, whenever I'd refuse to eat shark-fin soup at weddings (it's traditional and compulsory wedding fare) people would look at me like I was crazy.  Now, when I refuse, everyone totally gets it: it's seen as a valid choice for someone to make.

And I was so excited to discover at Raymond's wedding last year, that the shark-fin soup was fake; that he'd ordered the newly invented substitute out of respect for the number of guests he knew were opposed to it.  It tasted like the real thing but wasn't - or so I was told -  so folks in HK-Chef-World are obviously working on an acceptable real-tasting substitute.  Kept thinking "They're probably using endangered green turtle meat instead." ... but it's a start.

Anyway, yesterday was Hong Kong's big annual Anti-Shark-Fin Flash Mob Freeze.  I've been waiting for the clip to go up on youtube but they're obviously still editing ... so I'll have to show you last year's instead:



 And here's it being reported on the Chinese news:




 I'm totally for this protest.  I'm completely against killing sharks for their fins, and the reason is very simple and very primal.

And, yes, I know there are all sorts of eco-sensible reasons for not eating shark fin ... like the fact that these fin-hunters take the coastal sharks like Grey Nurses ... but it's those coastal territory-defending sharks that keep the monster-sharks away from our shores.

Did you know that's how it goes? That those smaller, rottweiller-level-dangerous sharks protect us from Monster-Death-from-Below-Killer Sharks? And, really, be honest about this: do we really want Monster-Death-from-Below-Killer Sharks haunting our beaches?

But, although I know this at an intellectual level, my real objection to eating shark fin soup is very basic and very personal.  Having been in the water with sharks, including Monster-Death-from-Below-Killer Sharks, on so many occasions and come away unscathed, I don't eat shark as a way of saying thank you.

Also it's the deal I made with the first shark that ever circled me while I was spear-fishing "You don't eat me and I promise I will never, ever eat you!"  and that's a promise I mean to keep.

So, truly, I'm behind this Hong Kong "Friends of Sharks" movement and wish them the very best in their protests.