Obama in hot water over shark fin soup

It was the sort of visit made for cameras, but President Barack Obama's stop at a Chinese restaurant came under scrutiny on Friday after the menu showed that it served shark fin.

Obama, in San Francisco for fund-raisers, on Thursday surprised and delighted lunch-time diners with a surprise stop at a restaurant in Chinatown. He posed for pictures and paid in cash for two bags of take-out food.

But a look at the menu of the restaurant, Great Eastern, showed that it offered soup from shark fin, a Chinese delicacy that environmentalists say is pushing the ancient fish to the point of extinction.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that no one on the staff had been aware of the issue until seeing media reports on Friday and that Obama had not ordered shark.

"The president enjoyed his visit to Chinatown, and, as you know, ordered a lot of dim sum takeout. No soup," Carney told reporters on Air Force One.

Environmentalists say that tens of millions of sharks are killed each year as fishermen slice off their fins for dinner tables, leaving them to die in the water. Sharks have few offspring, compounding risks to their survival.

The United States banned finning in its waters in 2000. Obama in January 2011 signed the Shark Conservation Act that toughened regulations by banning imports of fins that are not attached to corresponding shark carcasses.

While the federal law did not ban shark fins themselves, California Governor Jerry Brown in October signed a bill that barred the sale, trade and possession of shark fins. However, restaurants in San Francisco and elsewhere in California can still sell existing stocks of shark fin until July 2013.

Rebecca Regnery, deputy director of wildlife for Humane Society International, said that shark fin was still on offer at a majority of large Chinese restaurants in cities with large Asian populations.

She said that her group had special cards which it encouraged diners to fill out and send to restaurants if they find shark fin.

"Usually the restaurants say we're happy not to serve it, but then everyone is going to go to our competitor and because of demand we're obligated to serve it," she said.

"If it's the opposite, and people go to a competitor that does not serve shark fin, then it starts making economic sense to take it off the menu," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-hot-water-over-shark-fin-soup-224053506.html

California bans sale of shark fins

After more than 27,000 sign online petition, ban becomes law
October 2011: California has become the fourth American state to ban the sale of shark fins. Governor Jerry Brown signed the California shark fin ban into law earlier this month.

Shark finning is a process by which fishermen catch sharks, slice off their fins and tails, then throw the fish back into the water to die. Up to 73 million sharks are killed through finning every year, pushing some shark populations to decline by as much as 90 per cent in recent years. About 85 per cent of U.S. shark-fin consumption occurs in California .

'This just might preserve sharks and the ocean ecosystem'The bill's passage marks a huge win for the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance (APA Alliance), an organisation formed to give voice to Asian Americans who support the ban on the sale of shark fins. Bill Wong, a member of the APA Alliance, recruited more than 25,000 people to join a campaign on Change.org calling for passage of the ban.

‘We applaud Governor Brown for signing this agreement,' said Bill Wong, creator of the petition on Change.org and member of the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance. ‘It puts California at the forefront of the global effort to save sharks led by a broad coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, conservationists, animal rights activists, commercial fishermen, business leaders and artists.

‘The passage of this bill may just be the tipping point that will preserve the shark species and the ocean ecosystem.'

The ban comes into effect on January 1, 2012, but businesses and individuals can sell shark fins obtained before the ban went into effect until July 1, 2013. California is now the fourth U.S. state to enact a ban on the sale of shark fins, joining Hawaii, Washington and Oregon.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/shark-california.html#cr