Alarming sight: thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop

[marmar]

Alarming sight: thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop
By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com


The number of shark fins set out to dry like the morning laundry on a Hong Kong factory building rooftop is staggering. To look at the accompanying images and video, revealing perhaps 10,000 fins, and to grasp that sharks are being slaughtered at a furious pace so their fins can be used to make soup, one cannot help but wonder how many years will pass before at least some shark species are banished to extinction.



Shark conservation movements are growing, especially regarding the cruel practice of finning, but the striking imagery supplied by photojournalist Alex Hofford illustrates that conservation efforts, while they have made progress, have a long away to go toward stemming the killing of sharks for their fins.

Hofford states on his blog that traders have taken to using rooftops instead of ground-level markets to dry their fins out of public view: "I'm now of the opinion that this place has been operating for a very long time, and it's only in the last three days that their activities have come to light."



China is the world's largest shark fin market and Hong Kong is a hub through which many fins pass. Hofford focused his camera on a specific location: Kwong Ga Factory Building, 64 Victoria Rd., Kennedy Town. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/50552/alarming+sight+thousands+of+shark+fins+drying+on+hong+kong+rooftop/

[pinboy3niner]

1. CNN also did a report on this:

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2013/01/04/tsr-todd-shark-fin-images-outcry.cnn