Shark fin soup has been part of the Chinese culture for years and is often served on special occasions and at banquets. Often it takes one shark to make only ten bowls of soup… so serving this soup for at a banquet for 300 people means that 30 sharks were slaughtered. The irony here is that shark fins are flavourless!

If bears were being killed in the masses like sharks were to make a soup, there would be a massive outcry. However, since sharks have been vilified to become one of the world’s most feared creatures and we can’t necessarily see what goes on in the ocean, these killings and the corresponding negative impact on our ecosystem has received little attention.

Enter Shark Truth, a Vancouver-based grassroots nonprofit dedicated to bringing awareness to the actions around shark fin soup and the repercussions it could have on our ecosystem.

Since shark fin soup has traditionally been served at Chinese weddings, Shark Truth focuses a lot of their efforts on educating Chinese wedding couples about the detrimental effects of the soup. By informing consumers about the impacts of shark finning industry, Shark Truth hopes that couples will be encouraged to choose an alternative to the soup.

Most recently Shark Truth held a Happy Hearts Love Sharks contest where they challenged Chinese couples to stand up against tradition and forgo serving shark fin soup at their weddings. The result from this one contest was that 25 couples pledged to not serve shark fin soup at their weddings and 4,300 bows of shark fin soup were diverted from consumption (430 sharks saved).

To find out how you can help Shark Truth stop the soup one bowl at a time, click here.