Shocking video shows thousands of shark fins dumped on Hong Kong street

Shark fin soup is a popular delicacy served as a status symbol by many of the rich in Asia, especially urban China. But the broth is made through the cruel practice of hacking off a live shark's fin and then tossing the animal back overboard to drown.

This eye-opening video shows what happens next in the dubious industry - which is illegal in many countries - as thousands of fins are dumped on a street in Hong Kong.
They were left on the pavement in Sheung Wan for airing and sorting, according to filmmaker Gary Stokes, who posted the 'disgraceful' footage on Vimeo.

Men and women then hastily stuff the fins into baskets, laughing and shaking their heads at the questions put to them in English about their lucrative industry.
Shark finning is becoming more common with the increase in China's wealthy citizens, who believe the soup has medicinal benefits and serve it at celebrations.

The fins can fetch up to $600 (£380) a pound, with a bowl of soup having been priced at as much as £108. The business is causing the death of up to 100million sharks every year.
Finning takes place off every the coast of every continent, in particular in poorer countries that do not have the resources to monitor and prosecute shark hunters.

Countries with anti shark finning laws include the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Namibia, South Africa and the European Union, while Hawaii recently outlawed the sale of shark fin soup.
Various celebrities are now making a stand against finning.
Last year, Gordon Ramsey called the shark trade ‘cruel’, ‘sick’, ‘tragic’, ‘barbaric’, ‘wasteful’ and ‘out of control’.

The celebrity chef’s Channel 4 documentary, Shark Bait followed the sharks dying in horrific circumstances - ‘surgically ­separated’ from their fins with a machete, before being tossed back into the ocean, as the meat on the body is far less valuable.But two weeks later the chef was accused of being a hypocrite, as footage emerged that appeared to show a bronzed Ramsey reeling in a seven-foot bull shark.

U.S. actress Bo Derek wants to ban the selling, trading or possessing of fins and said finning has created a global environmental crisis in which shark stocks could be wiped out in one generation.
Actress January Jones was recently awarded for her commitment to sharks by Oceana, and NBA star Yao Ming, the 7ft 6in Chinese mega-celebrity, swore off the expensive delicacy back in 2006.

One commenter wrote under the video: 'To slaughter sharks is genocide for sharks and the eco-system = all of us. This industry is barbaric and shameful for anyone involved.'






.