Glass jar of shark fin sold at a shop in Toronto's Chinatown.
Just because it is a cultural tradition doesn't make it defensible. And shark finning – the slaughtering of sharks solely for their fins – is not a practice worth defending.
Toronto city council is to be commended for passing a ban on the consumption and sale of shark fins, a traditional and expensive Chinese delicacy, even though such a bylaw may well be difficult to enforce. Municipalities are closer to the people than other levels of government, and sometimes it is important to make a political statement – even an impractical one.
Sharks deserve protection. The practice of killing sharks for their fins and then leaving them to die in the ocean is not only inhumane, it is threatening the stability of the marine ecosystem. Shark finning has increased in recent years due to a growing demand for shark fin soup, served at weddings and banquets in China and other Asian countries. Some experts estimate that between 75 and 100 million sharks are killed for their fins every year.
As awareness of the threats facing the shark population grows, many jurisdictions have moved to ban the shark fin trade, including Mississauga, Oakville, Ont., and Brantford, Ont., as well as California and Oregon. Claudia Li, founder of the Shark Truth campaign, has been leading the movement in Vancouver, while in China the lobby to stop eating shark fin soup has been endorsed by the country's most famous athlete, the NBA star Yao Ming.
The city of Toronto may well lack the legal authority to enforce a ban. The people have spoken, however, and their political will can now be used to lobby Ottawa to further regulate the trade. The federal Fisheries and Oceans ministry already prohibits shark finning in Canadian waters, but is silent on the possession and consumption of shark fins. It is time to change this.