CHAT: Rid Calgary of Shark Fin Soup

[HJ Hornbeck]

About 30 restaurants in Calgary sell shark-fin soup.

So what, you ask? In order to harvest those fins, fishermen catch
sharks, cut off their fins, and dump them back in the water to die.
The soup itself demands top dollar, because it was considered a
delicacy by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty; shark fin itself has no
taste, it just provides an interesting texture after a lot of manual
preparations. Rising standards of living in China specifically (and
Asia in general) have amplified the shark fishing industry, to the
point that some scientists think it'll make all shark species extinct
in a decade.

And 30 restaurants sell this soup in Calgary.

Toronto has put a stop to that, by making it illegal via by-law. A
student group on campus is trying to do the same, and they need your
help. They're hoping for 10,000 physical signatures on a petition,
which they will then present to the city, asking for Calgary to follow
in Toronto's footsteps. I'll be bringing a copy of the petition to
tonight's meeting, but in the meantime you can learn more here:

http://sharkfinfreecalgary.org/

HJ Hornbeck