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66

Real Chinese Fighting for Sharks

From popular Chinese actress Hai Qing to former

professional basketball player Yao Ming, and a slew of

Hong Kong celebrities, including Sharon Kwok, Carl

Ng, his famous father Richard Ng, Jackie Chan, Alex

Fong, Quincy Wong and Anthony Wong, all spreading

the good word about saving sharks, it is heartening to

see the positive impact this is creating.

In the late 1980s, Richard Ng Yiu-hon, a China-

born Hong Kong actor and comedy screen legend,

particularly in Hong Kong films of the 1980s and 1990s,

stopped eating shark fin soup entirely.

While it was then more because the older generation

had passed on, and the fact that Richard and his family

preferred the simpler sweet corn soup, today it is a

greater understanding that motivates Richard and his

actor son Carl to advocate the ban on shark fin soup

consumption. One of the biggest affirmations of this is

the fact that all who know the Ng family share the same

opinion and no one has an issue keeping shark fin soup

off the menu at family gatherings and social events.

For anyone who stopped and listened to a screen

star, Richard himself would start off by explaining the

cruelty behind the finning of sharks, before moving

on to how it upsets the biodiversity of the ocean and

ultimately, the planet. “And if the other person still

didn’t get it,” jokes Carl, “he’d probably give them two

fingers and ask them to stand in the corner of the room

until they did understand it!” ag

Prionace glauca Ya Jian NT Unknown 60–87%

Isurus oxyrinchus Qing Lian VU Decreasing 40–99%

VU

VU

Carcharinusfalciformis Wu Yang NT Decreasing 60–91%

Carcharinus

obscurus

Hai Hu Decreasing 62–92%

Carcharinusplumbeus Bai Qing Decreasing 65–97%

Galeocerdo

cuvier

Ruan Sh NT Unknown 65–99%

Sphyrna lewini/ zygaena Chun Chi EN/VU Unknown/ Decreasing 79%–total collapse

Sphyrna mokarran Gu Pian EN Decreasing 79%–total collapse

NT

Alopias Wu Gu VU Decreasing 50–83%

VU

Carcharinusleucaas Sha Qing Unknown 98.6–99.99%

Carcharinuslongimanus Liu Qiu Decreasing 70–99%

COMMON

NAME

SCIENTIFIC

NAME

FIN PRODUCT

NAME DECLINE

IUCN RED LIST *

STATUS

IUCN

TREND

BLUE SHARK

SHORTFIN

MAKO

SHARK

SILKY

SHARK

DUSKY

SHARK

SANBAR

SHARK

TIGER

SHARK

GREAT

HAMMERHEAD

OCEANIC

WHITETIP

BULL SHARK

THRESHER

SHARK

(COMMON,

BIGEYE,

PELAGIC)

HAMMERHEAD

SCALLOPED/

SMOOTH

below The quirky looking

great hammerhead (Sphyrna

mokarran), the largest

species of hammerhead

shark, belonging to the

family Sphyrnidae

BERNARD RADVANER/CORBIS

WILDAID, AUGUST 2014