...It's been about 20 years since Michael Aw last had shark's fin soup, but he'll never forget the taste and texture of the pricey Asian delicacy.
"Eek, it's like eating fingernails and hair!" says the Singapore-born marine environmentalist who is based in Sydney but considers the world's oceans his home -- and Asia's banquet tables his battleground.
Aw is an activist at the forefront of a campaign against the consumption of shark's fin soup, which is little more than boiled cartilage, by educating Asians, the youth in particular, about the cruelty behind this mainstay of Chinese cuisine.
Shark conservationists scored an important victory last week when Hong Kong's brand-new Disneyland, due to open in September, succumbed to international public pressure and decided to scrap the dish from its wedding banquet menu. The US$3.2 billion theme park admitted it could not find an "environmentally sustainable" source for the fins.
Aw congratulated the entertainment empire for the decision and said the Disneyland controversy turned out to be a boon because "never before have sharks received such global attention" regarding the fin trade.
He called upon the Disney group to "develop an alliance" with "like-minded individuals and institutions to achieve the greater objective" of discouraging shark's fin consumption.
Aw says there is no such thing as sustainable sources for the dish. The fins are usually hacked off captured live sharks, which are dumped back into the sea where they bleed to death or get devoured by other marine life...
...Aw is the founding director of OceanNEnvironment, a charity organization registered in Australia to protect coral reefs, promote bio-diversity and reduce the impact of man-made pollution through research and expeditions. Much of the money spent is his own, earned through his work as a photographer, author and publisher.
He heads a "Say No" to shark's fin campaign in Singapore and Malaysia, which also has a large Chinese population, creating educational leaflets and videos, and organizing roadshows and school visits to get his message across. He plans to take his campaign to China.
Sea Shepherd estimates that over 7,257 tonnes of shark fins are processed each year -- and 181,487 tonnes of shark carcasses are discarded at sea. It says 18 species are already listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
