Saving Sharks?

Below is a newsarticle from Yahoo News.

Fake fins eye saving sharks, Chinese wallets

A Japanese company is launching fake shark fins in China, hoping to tap a market as prices for real ones rise amid concerns the species is being hunted to extinction.

Shark fin is considered one of the highest-end delicacies in Chinese cuisine and also fetches high prices in select Japanese restaurants.

Nikko Yuba Seizo Co. a Japanese food-processing company, said it had developed artificial shark fins made out of pork gelatin. Its top executives returned Friday from a two-day trip to China to introduce the products.

"Shark fin prices have been rising constantly in recent years due to a fall in the volume traded, so we decided to develop an artificial fin," said Tadashi Kozuka, a top official of the company which also trades real shark fins imported from Indonesia, Brazil and elsewhere.

"We visited Shanghai and Dalian -- big cities where wealthy Chinese people live -- to seek trading partners. I guess fins sell well among rich people," he said.

But he said the artificial version would also appeal to Chinese who would not be able to afford the real fins, which are served as a luxury at weddings and other important occasions.

Kozuka said the company had long queues of customers when it first presented its product in China at a trade fair in June in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The price of the gelatin-made fin costs only one-tenth of the real one, or about 1,500 yen (15 dollars) per kilogram when sold wholesale, he said.

Controversy over China's appetite for shark's fin rose last year when the country's most famous sports personality, basketball star Yao Ming, called for a boycott of the dish to save the fish from extinction. Some species of shark are now endangered.

Environmentalists have campaigned to stop "finning," when fishermen catch sharks and cut off their fins before throwing the carcasses back into the sea. The practice is blamed for preventing an accurate picture of shark numbers.

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Would introducing substitutes really save the sharks? I feel the company that is doing this, while it might have good intentions, may have completely missed the point.

Shark's fins is not just a simple delicacy. It's cultural roots run deep. Has anyone wondered why Shark's fins soup always comes as a second dish at banquets after the cold dish? That's because in Ben Cao Gang Mu (Historical Chinese Medicine Encyclopedia written by Li Shizhen) it's said to stimulate appetite. The Chinese have used shark fins in shark-fin soup, considered a delicacy, since the Han Dynasty over 2200 years ago. There are records of both the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) using shark-fin soup as a banquet staple. In the Ming Dynasty, it became an imperial privilege to consume sharks fin's soup.

Chinese gastronomical culture is largely influenced by what the emperors ate, which the commoners could not afford, and its passed on to this day. Shark's fins soup is one example, as are bird's nest soup, and abalone dishes. To the Chinese, to be able to have these for a meal is considered a status elevation, and something to be proud of, to show off. No matter if these things have absolutely no taste, or nutritional value. By the way, Shark's fin's were never used because of they are particularly tasty. In fact, they are completely tasteless, or might taste like ammonia if not treated properly. Shark's fins were added to soup (besides their appetising and aphrodesiac properties) because they gave the soup a great consistency supposedly unmatched by other additives. Nothing but the best for the emperor right? That's probably how the dish became a status symbol.

Chinese Culture is such that when presented with such luxury, even if one did not appreciate it, they must learn, or at least pretend to. It's not considered a good omen to have a kid say he hates shark's fins soup because superstitious parents may take it to mean that the child is destined to live a "coolie's life" and so will never appreciate luxury. Hence this dish, as a result of its imperial status, must be served at Chinese events, otherwise the host will be frowned upon as a stingy person, and he will lose "face". Many Chinese would rather die than be in that situation.

Therefore to them, substitute Shark's fins is not an option. True, poorer people might take up that option as a substitute (better than nothing), but it is the current market now that's decimating Shark populations. It's like proposing to your girlfriend with a 50cent lollipop ring instead of a 5 thousand dollar princess cut diamond ring. Nonetheless, it is a good thing to have, just that maybe, it arrived a bit too early. People must be educated to develop an aversion to eating shark's fins. Which is a formidable task, considering in China, your pet dog might end up in a claypot.