Fin Soup

On June 10 the Hong Kong Standard reports that Disney has decided to take the shark's fin soup off its wedding banquet menu. However, its hotels will still serve it on request after educating customers about the threat to sharks. The company plans to distribute pamphlets which detail the environmental impact of killing sharks, how they are killed and how the fins are harvested to customers who insist on having the soup. Disney also says it will only source shark’s fins from “reliable and responsible suppliers” that adhere to relevant international treaties. Environmental groups say they are disappointed by the decision and vow to carry on campaigning until the dish is withdrawn entirely. A report suggesting confusion between Disney in Hong Kong and parent company Disney USA emerges a few days later. In a letter to the Sunday Morning Post (June 12), WWF Hong Kong director Eric Bohm says he had conducted a teleconference with Disney USA in early June during which it agreed that its Hong Kong subsidiary would not serve shark’s fin, either on the general menu or by request, until such time as the WWF or Disney were able to identify a certified sustainable source. Bohm claims the two sides were in the process of drafting a joint press release to reflect these discussions, and that Disney Hong Kong’s announcement that it was continuing to serve shark’s fin soup came as a surprise. “Is Disney in control of its subsidiary” he asks. He continues: “In the context of Disney’s commitment to youth and its public pronouncements of concern for the environment, this decision smacks of the grossest hypocrisy. Does Disney’s environmentalism apply only in America? Outside America, do ‘different cultures’ make environmentally unsound practices acceptable?” On the same day the South China Morning Post reports that several green groups are planning a protest to disrupt the opening ceremony of Hong Kong Disneyland on September 12, while others are calling for an immediate boycott of