Good news for sharks!

Good news for sharks as WWF takes the fight to restaurants, hotels, and corporations that serve as endpoint distributors in the heart of the shark trade, Hong Kong. Their most recent initiative has garnered 112 corporate signatories who pledge "no trade, no promotion and no consumption of shark fin," with another 97 hotels and restaurants participating in their "Alternative Shark-free Menu" program. You can read more about WWF's work here.

Best of all though, is the support shown by the Peninsula Hotels group, who have pledged to remove sharks fin from their menus entirely starting January 1, 2012. I've always thought that it would be nice to be a Peninsula customer and lead the type of wealthy, cosmopolitan lifestyle that accompanies one. While this might go completely against a more muted environmentalist stand, I don't know that environmentalism has to mean a life without luxuries. This is why the support of a high-profile, luxury hotel group like the Peninsula is so important in the fight against sharks fin. Sharks fin is as aspirational a dish as you get - for a billion Chinese people, serving sharks fin is not merely a culinary statement, it is a status statement. So is the Peninsula. So, let's hope that one status statement can help rid us of the other, much less environmentally friendly one! One more reason to be a Peninsula customer. :)