Foodists 'Decadent Dinner' potluck

Foodists 'Decadent Dinner' potluck

Foodists 'Decadent Dinner' potluck

Foodists 'Decadent Dinner' potluck

Foodists 'Decadent Dinner' potluck

More photos on Flickr >

Vancouver website consulting for restaurants, food service, and hospitality

Learn about the shark fin trade with Shark Truth and Wild Rice

1 Comment Karen HamiltonNovember 13, 2009

The Shark Truth fundraiser on November 19th is now sold out – if you missed the chance to grab a ticket, follow along between 8-10pm that night on Tiny Bites. We’ll be providing live commentary and photos as the evening progresses.

Save Harry.

This is Harry the shark, the cute but melancholy mascot for Shark Truth. I’ve only gotten to know him in the past few months, having been previously unaware of what’s been going on with him and his kin. At the time that we met, this is what I thought I knew about sharks:

  1. The whale shark is the largest fish and acts more like bovine grazer than fearsome predator. Seeing hammerhead sharks on a nature show always makes me giggle.
  2. Shark fins are harvested rather sketchily to make shark fin soup, a Chinese banquet delicacy. Then again, much ocean wildlife is harvested rather sketchily in Asia and around the world.
  3. The San Jose Sharks have one of the silliest uniforms in the NHL. According to my husband, they also choke in the playoffs.

You’re probably thinking that this is rather poor shark intelligence – especially for a person who has been an avid supporter of Ocean Wise, SeaChoice, and marine conservation in general. I at least don’t walk around thinking that all sharks are of the Jaws variety. My youth was immersed enough in marine biology and watching The Nature of Things to understand that we’re a far greater danger to sharks than sharks are to us.

Moreover, the plight of the shark, despite evidence of growing concern, had been falling on my relatively deaf ears. I don’t eat shark fin soup. I have no interest in ever doing so. It isn’t a cultural must-do for me like eating Spam and Vienna sausages are in the lunchtime life of a Filipino child (and yes, I do retain a soft spot for Spam and Vienna sausages). I was paying more attention to issues that impacted my immediate diet, such as BC spot prawns and sustainable sushi.

But this started to change when chef/owner Andrew Wong of Wild Rice got in touch with me this August. He had been contacted by Claudia Li and Vivian Kwong, two SFU alumni of Chinese descent who were disturbed enough about the business of shark fin trading to establish a local awareness campaign dubbed Shark Truth.

_ONE4356 (by Yelp.com)

Claudia Li, in pink (Photo by Raymond Ocampo, Creative Commons)

_ONE4390 (by Yelp.com)

Vivian Kwong, right (Photo by Raymond Ocampo, Creative Commons)

Andrew was already in the know about the shark fin trade, being more familiar with documentaries such as Shark Water that illustrate the dark side of finning practices. He had agreed to be venue sponsor for the inaugural Shark Truth fundraiser and was reaching out to food media to gauge what people knew about the issue.

After our conversation, I was intrigued enough to meet with Claudia and Vivian to hear about their cause. They described an interesting goal for their first year of campaigning: to convince at least 40 weddings to “stop the soup”. In other words, they hope to find 40 couples that are willing to explore and select banquet alternatives to shark fin soup.

This seemed like a reasonable, concrete, and positive approach to spreading the word throughout the Asian community in Greater Vancouver, and I for one was happy to be a media sponsor for their Wild Rice campaign launch on November 19th if it would help them out.

Join us on November 19, 2009 to listen to Shark Truth

If you’d like to learn more about this issue while snacking on Wild Rice canapes and hanging out with Team Tiny Bites, grab your ticket below for the Shark Truth launch on November 19th! Here are the event details:

Shark Truth Launch Event
with guest speaker Nick Dulvy, IUCN Shark Specialist Group Co-Chair

Thursday, Nov 19th, 8-10pm
Wild Rice Restaurant (Google Map)
117 West Pender | Vancouver
(604) 642-2882

8:00pm Doors open
8:45pm Presentation by Nick Dulvy
9:30pm Raffle prize draw

Your $20 ticket includes yummy appetizers and the chance to hear IUCN Shark Specialist Co-Chair, Nick Dulvy, speak about shark population and behaviour. You’ll also have access to over $800 in raffle prizes, such as gift certificates to Wild Rice and The Whip and diving lessons with Diving Locker. You can celebrate your prize winnings with drink specials like Sharktini and Bloody Harry’s.

Familiarize yourself with the plight of the shark

Until we see each other on November 19th, here are a few resources selected from Shark Truth’s Facebook and Twitter feeds and a few bits of shark trivia for you to mull over.

Shark trivia

Up to 80 million sharks are killed each year for their fins.

Up to three quarters of oceanic pelagic sharks are facing an elevated risk of extinction. With a long life span (up to 65 years), late sexual maturity (up to 21 years), and little young (2-3 pups), they are being overfished faster than they can reproduce.

Because of all the pollution we’ve dumped into the ocean, shark fin now contains high amounts of harmful pollutants such as mercury. Yum.

Shark news and research

Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Culinary Resources, Events, Food, Food Fun Facts, Going Green

Comments

One Response to “Learn about the shark fin trade with Shark Truth and Wild Rice”

  1. Shareen Chin on November 19th, 2009 8:11 pm

    Hello,

    Sorry I can’t be there, but I will watch your blog!

    Shareen

Got something to say?