Doubled-boiled tiger bones soup, braised bear paws, deep-fried elephant trunks – these are just some dishes that would never see the light of day at dinner tables. But today, a marine animal on the verge of extinction, with its flesh high in poisonous toxicity, is still being served at wedding banquets: Sharks-fins in soup.

The number of threatened shark species listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has increased 8 folds in the mere span of just 11 years. Three shark species (basking shark, whale shark and great white shark) were listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2006. By February 2008, it was announced that 9 new species of sharks, including the once common scalloped hammerhead, tiger, dusky and bull sharks, are to be added to the IUCN Red List’s categories of species at global risk of extinction.

The reason for this dwindling population of one of the most ancient creatures on Earth can be attributed to the voracious demand for sharks’ fins in Asia. The sharks’ low rate of reproduction and their long maturity periods make the shark population impossible to catch up with the rate at which the sharks are killed.

And it is for this reason that all the photographers in WPN are offering a credit of S$200* for clients who consciously take sharks’ fin soup off their wedding banquets menu. We would like to propose to our clients in replacing sharks-fin soup with alternatives that are equally popular, for example; a shark-fin-less ‘Buddha-Jump-Over-The-Wall’, which is a melting pot of high-quality abalone, scallops, mushrooms etc. (KC from Tinydot had this delicious dish at his own wedding banquet more than seven years ago and it was still being talked about by his friends even today).

We at Wedding Photographers Network (WPNetwork) strongly believe that if an animal species is being endangered, we should do our part and stop killing that species for food. What we take from nature, we must give back.

Even though we are merely a small group of individuals, we all share the love for our natural environment and its protection. We want to do our part in making sure there are enough resources to sustain our children and the future generations. And so we hope, with our little gesture to encourage couples and families to take Sharks-fin soup off their wedding banquets, that we might be able to affect a cultural change in time to come.

Suggested Articles:

WWF Hong Kong Shark Fin Initiative:

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/pelagic_sharks/?UprojectID=HK0042

Oceanic Defence – Stop Shark Finning

http://www.oceanicdefense.org/campaigns/stop-shark-finning.html

*Terms and Conditions:

1) S$200 credit only valid for full Chinese wedding dinner that do not serve Sharks-fin dishes.

2) Credit can only be used for the redemption of items such as prints, extra pages, albums, that have not been part of the original package couples have signed up with their respective photographers.

3) Credit is not exchangeable for cash or rebates or to be used in combination with other promotions.

4) Valid for bookings made from December 2010 for new sign ups up to 31st March 2011.