Shark Fin Crackdown
Undercovers sweep through Chinatown and elsewhere busting restaurants and markets for peddling a cruel and wasteful soup
In a Nova Chronicles & Lomax Gazette exclusive, eight Houston restaurants and grocery stores have been criminally charged with the sale of shark fins, according to Harris County documents.
Based on a tip from the Marine Wildlife Program at the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, undercover Texas game wardens and investigators with the Harris County District Attorney’s office purchased illegal shark fins in the form of mooncakes and soups.
Somewhat surprisingly, Texas is one of 13 states in which the commercial sale or possession of shark fins is entirely banned.
The law was enacted because, per one of the criminal complaints, “the appetite for shark fins by consumers and the high market value and profit for those selling the shark fins has placed the population of many shark species in peril. Texas law is squarely in line with the national and global push to end the sale of shark fins.”
(If you are licensed and catch your own shark, and the catch meets size limits and whatever other regulations are in place, yes, you may legally eat the fin.)
The value of shark fins far exceeds the rest of their flesh, thereby creating scenarios where captured sharks were thrown overboard to die from fishing vessels once their fins were hacked away.
Cruelty and waste are not the only rationales for the bans.
Per the Animal Welfare Institute: “Continued demand for shark fin soup, dumplings, and other shark fin dishes served in restaurants around the world perpetuates the practice of finning, resulting in an estimated 73 million sharks being killed each year for their fins alone. Many shark populations have faced steep declines due to years of exploitation. Their slow reproductive rates make them extremely vulnerable to extinction. The disappearance of sharks—apex predators in many ecosystems—causes dangerous imbalances in marine communities worldwide.”
Popular and expensive in East Asia, shark fin soup is celebrated as a symbol of prosperity and often served at weddings and banquets.
This sweep follows another from February 2020, in which ten restaurants in Houston and Dallas were caught up in the net. For some reason none of those restaurants were named in any of the news briefs I found on the bust, but here are those that face class B misdemeanor charges as of this week:
Yen Huong Bakery 1203 Chartres
Hong Kong Food Market 9820 Gulf Freeway
Mencius Gourmet Hunan 1329 Kingwood Drive
My Hoa 13201 Bellaire
Ocean Palace 11215 Bellaire
Phat Ky 11792 Wilcrest
The Bep Teahouse West 8300 Sam Houston Pkwy #172
Viet Hoa West 8300 Sam Houston Pkwy
The Animal Welfare Institute maintains a list of restaurants brazenly claiming to offer shark fin dishes in spite of the ban. Two of those -- Phat Ky and Mencius -- were on their list prior to the sweep.
Sale of shark fins is punishable by a $2,000 fine or six months in jail, though who that person might be -- the owner? Chef? Manager? -- is a mystery to me.
Given that it seems unlikely to me that anyone will face jail time for these offenses, and the relatively small fine, it seems shaming might be the best disincentive.
Until the fines are elevated and they are punished in the wallet, the shark fin soup will remain. These people have no shame.
While I applaud the effort from law enforcement, I would bet shark fin soup is widely available “off menu”.
From my experience ( I lived in Asia for a while) is by and large a Chinese thing.
Would be interesting to know how much shark fin is sourced locally and by whom.
Uh-Oh.......CRIME IN THE ICE MACHINE !!!