A Conversation with a Shark Fin Trader in Shanghai
In spring, I did something risky: I tried to research shark’s fin. It’s one of the most controversial and emotional disagreements in the food world between China and many other countries. The western image, of tens of millions of sharks being finned and then thrown back into the ocean to drown, is probably not the full reality. Neither is an argument I heard often on the other side, which is that the sharks are caught for their oil-rich livers, used by the cosmetic industry, and the fins are a by-product.
I wanted to get beyond the emotions and surface-level arguments and understand the issue. I ultimately failed. I contacted shark experts, NGOs and professors around the world, and was completely shunned. Academics who had written papers about shark populations and finning claimed to be out of touch with the industry now. NGOs had lots to say but little evidence. Shark experts told me they’d “get back to me”.
I had one interesting conversation and it was in Shanghai at the wholesale food market in Baoshan district: with a shark’s fin trader from Guangdong (Chaoshan) who has been selling dried seafood, and mostly shark fins, in Shanghai for the past 20 years. I’m not using his name or shop’s name because I asked him to speak candidly — and he did — though he was pretty ok with the whole thing; as he pointed out, he’s not doing anything illegal. A number of restaurants in Shanghai, including those with fancy international awards, serve it.
Below, some slightly edited excerpts from two hours talking with a shark fin trader.
Please keep in mind that these are his opinions. Publishing them doesn’t mean I agree with all of them.
*
On the industry’s controversial reputation
The shark fin industry isn’t sensitive or a gray area, but it is controversial. But there’s no law in China right now that prohibits you from eating shark fins. It’s allowed, as long as it’s not from an endangered species. Morally, it’s controversial, but there’s a market. The government doesn’t promote it but they also don’t prohibit it. At the same time, on some level, they put a lot of effort into advocating the disadvantages of killing sharks in great numbers.
But as long as the shark is not a rare or endangered species in China, we can sell their fins. This is allowed in China.
On the types of fins and their quality
There are five categories: gold hook (金钩), greens (青片), tail fin (尾翼), tail hook (尾勾), and the anal fin, which is called zhi. The gold hook (dorsal fin) helps the shark make turns. They use it all the time, which is probably why this fin is thicker and has more “threads”.
We look at the thickness of the fin to determine if it’s expensive or not. The thicker, or the bigger the fin is, the more expensive it will be. The bigger it is, the rarer it is. Chinese people like rare things, so the rarer it is, the more expensive it is. It also depends on species. The quality of the great white shark’s fin is different from that of the fin of some species native to China, for example. But we don’t distinguish between sharks close to the shore or the sharks that are in the deep sea.
We don’t have many species. The Chinese government only allows us to sell a small fraction of them. You can find great white shark’s fin and some popular species here. But many governments have restrictions. We probably work with less than ten species.
On purchasing, supply and customers
We only sell shark’s fin from mainland China. Although Hong Kong has a free trade policy, it restricts exports to mainland China. The Chinese government doesn’t allow Hong Kong shark fin into the mainland. But they can go through third parties…
We have legal ways to cooperate, like with Customs. Every year, Customs auctions seized shark fins and sells them through designated companies. We can buy from the companies who win the auctions. That’s a reliable supply channel. There’s quite a lot.
We sell to businesses, restaurants and even individuals. This area — Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang — is the biggest market in China for shark fin, bigger even than Guangdong. But it’s hard to get into this industry. The barriers to entry are really high, and you need millions of RMB to get started.
On restrictions and their effects
Hong Kong has already put restrictions on two types of fins. No one wants to take the risk to smuggle fins these days, which means there are going to be fewer varieties of shark fins in the market, and ones you see now will slowly disappear from the Chinese market as our stocks are sold off. There’s no substitute for real shark’s fin, so prices will go up. What cost 30 RMB before is going to be 300 RMB in the future.
We don’t like the restrictions. We want to see this industry grow bigger with the support of the government. If the government continues to put restrictions on the shark’s fin industry, we could be trapped in an embarrassing situation, where we sell out of our inventory and have nothing left to sell.
We hope that the government will help keep the price of shark’s fin down, so that regular people can buy it too. The more volume, the higher the profit. We make money on volume, not single products.
On Yao Ming’s famous campaign from the 2000s
In 2008, (basketball player) Yao Ming promoted the idea of protecting sharks. After that, many first-tier hotels in China stopped selling shark fins. Sales basically dropped by half. Then, when the new leader took office, government stopped ordering shark fin, and the industry became even more miserable. But it’s never been like the peak years again, from 2003 to 2007.
On shark’s fin and health
During COVID, business was good. A lot of wealthy families ordered from us — they thought shark fin was good for health, so they ate a lot during that time. It offset the impact on the industry.
I don’t know if it’s really good for your health. There’s no data or scientific evidence to support this. People like folk medicine and tradition. You can’t eat shark fin too often. It has a lot of calcium, which is hard to digest.
On flavor
Shark fins don’t have any flavor. You eat them for texture; the flavor comes from the soup.
On the environmental impact
If we don’t fish for sharks, they’ll have a negative impact on the ecological balance.
When a Chinese fishing boat catches a shark, it dies quickly once it’s onboard. So what should the fishermen do with the shark and its fins? You sell them, and that creates an industry. Why not?
People outside of China look at this in an extreme way, which is not right. Look at Australia. If they don’t catch sharks, will people be comfortable be going to ocean? No! We need to achieve ecological balance, so we need to fish for sharks regularly. There are too many sharks in the ocean. If you don’t catch them, they’ll hurt the ecological balance. They don’t have any natural enemies.
And once they are caught, who is going to buy the fins? China can buy them.
I also think governments should place some limits on fishing though.
But the large-scale harvesting, we don’t really consider this issue. We are just part of nature; these issues are too complex for us. Governments should be the ones to set quotas and restrictions.
On tradition
Eating shark fin is not a common habit. It’s for the rich. But a lot of people want to try it and hotels want to make their menus fancier, to use it as a signature dish. If high-end hotels abandon it as an ingredient, sales will fall dramatically.
On who makes the best shark fin
After the end of the Qing Dynasty, imperial chefs left for places like Hong Kong and Taiwan. They brought their skills. Regular people didn’t know how to cook shark fin; they’ve never even seen it. Over time, the cooking methods from Hong Kong became the most popular, and it became part of Cantonese cuisine, and then spread back into mainland China from Hong Kong. So actually the chefs from Hong Kong and Taiwan are the best with shark fin.
In terms of cuisine, Cantonese are the best at using high-end ingredients. It’s undeniable. They also have the resources to learn about it. Fujian? It might sound a bit blunt, but a child from a poor family who doesn't even have enough food would not have the chance to study and perfect cooking, right? IIt's like building aircraft carriers in China — if China doesn’t have aircraft carriers, how can it build them? It's not the birthplace of aircraft carriers.
On where to eat
Luxury restaurants do it best. They have the skills. When we eat shark fin, we are not eating it for the fin; we’re paying more attention to the other cooking methods. The cheaper restaurants that sell shark fin, they’re just selling you calories, a way to fill up. It’s like steak. There’s a difference between having a nice steak at a fine steakhouse and having one at Pizza Hut. The only thing the cheap one does is stop you from being hungry.
