Bite-Back and Sea Shepherd are planning a series of 'high impact, peaceful protests in Chinatown, designed to heighten awareness of the situation and encourage restaurant-goers to eat elsewhere'.
And running in conjunction with the protests the two organisations will, from 5 April, launch a campaign in which teams will approach Chinatown restaurant owners directly in a bid to get shark-fin dishes removed from menus.
An initial foray among Chinatown restaurants this month has already resulted in three agreeing to remove shark-fin products - and the task of persuading others may not be as difficult as some might imagine.
'Most restaurants would prefer not to stock it [shark fin]; it is very expensive for them, but there is a kudos associated in the Chinese community and it is perceived by many to be needed on the menu,' Steve Roest, Sea Shepherd's spokesman, told Divernet. 'We often get a 'We'll remove it if the others do' response.'
Graham Buckingham, Campaign Director for Bite-Back, said: 'The daily slaughter of 270,000 sharks is massively fuelled by the 'out-of-control demand' for shark-fin soup. We have to get the situation back under control and that means engaging with restaurant-goers and owners to prompt a halt in the trade in shark fin.'
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