More luxury hotels take shark fin off their menu (3)

"Our awareness-raising mainly targets the luxury hotels, restaurants and businessmen associations," she said.

Her organization has held talks with China Hotel Association and discussed the association adding "shark fin free" into its scoring system for hotels hoping to gain the Green Hotel or Green Restaurant label, said Wang.

Displays of dried shark fin in hotels and restaurants are expected to soon be banned by the hotel association.

"We hope hotels and restaurants remove shark fin products from their menus," Wang said.

The Chinese government pledged to ban shark fin products from government banquets in late June, but the regulation is expected to take three years to release officially.

The NGOs that oppose shark fin consumption aim to protect the decreasing number of sharks in the ocean and stop shark-finning, a practice that condemns the finless sharks to a slow death.

Research has also found that shark fin contains poisonous elements, including lead and mercury, but the nutritious value is less than that of chicken or pork.

Some fishing associations in China say shark fin products should not be banned and deny shark-finning occurs. They claim a ban on the fins will lead to waste when sharks are captured with other fish.

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