Article Summary:

Times journalist Frank Pope has written in his blog and in his newspaper about an extraordinary interview with Dr. Giam Choo Hoo. In it, Dr. Choo Hoo, the elected Asian representative and longest-serving member of The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Animals Committee, asserts that he will continue to campaign for sharks to be left off the CITES list that he controls (despite them being on the IUCN lists), and he admits that:

“Because Shark fin Soup is the number one most prestigious thing to serve at a big event in China, Chinese people do not want it banned, and therefore he campaigns for that result”.

When pressed, he refuses to answer questions about his possible commercial links to companies supplying shark fin products, and likening the questioning to be akin to asking him questions about whether he was divorced, or how many children he had. In the light of this interview, it is not hard to understand why and how CITES has consistently failed to respond to issues around shark finning.