WASTEFUL CRUELTY OF SHARK-FIN SOUP

7.27.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 19th Feb 2008

A local Euro MP has written to the Chinese ambassador to ask for help in saving the world's increasingly endangered shark population. Recent figures show that numbers have plummeted in recent years, bringing the number of endangered shark species to nine on the 2008 Red List.

Liz Lynne MEP has often campaigned on animal welfare issues and is alarmed that the shark population has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent.

Speaking today Liz said:

"I am horrified that sharks' precarious position seems to have been driven by rocketing demand for shark-fin soup, which was once a preserve of the rich in the Far East and is now much more accessible to a wealthier middle class in countries such as China.

"To hunt down hammerheads and slice off their fins before dumping them back in the ocean to bleed to death is not only horrifically cruel, it is also an appalling waste of an endangered natural resource.

"For this reason I have written to the Chinese ambassador to ask her if her government is prepared to stop this method of hunting before certain shark species become extinct."

"We do not want to arrive at a situation, as with whales, where we need worldwide protests to secure a moratorium on shark hunting because numbers are so low they might never recover, so perhaps some sort of international limits to hunting need to be established before it is too late."