The Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort and Spa in Lapu-lapu City, which has been renamed JPark Island Resort Cebu, said that starting next month it would no longer serve shark fin soup.
“We will stop” serving the soup right away in support of the call of the Cebu Provincial Board,” said communications manager Angela Emphasis in a text message.
Another plush resort in Mactan, known for its environment-friendly practices, and a five-star hotel in Cebu City said the exotic soup favored in Chinese restaurants is not on their menu.
“We dont have shark fin soup here in Plantation Bay. We don’t even serve tuna sashimi because we know tuna is going to be extinct,” said Johannah Patalinjug-Lood, press releations officer of Plantation Bay Resort and Spa.
Many Chinese restaurants in Cebu serve it as a special delicacy with the cost charged per diner, not by the bowl.
In one five-star hotel, the soup served with shark fin alone and no other ingredients like crab meat or abalone, costs P800 per person.
Lapu-Lapu City tourism officer Hembler Mendoza yesterday said he would meet with other city officials to decide how to respond to the Capitol’s appeal.
“We will discuss this issue first with the tourism commission as well as the city council,” he said.
The action to stop serving shark on the menu “is long overdue” said Cebu Business Club president Gordon Alan Joseph and Islands Group president Jay Aldeguer.
Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association (HRRAC) president Cenelyn Manguilimotan, general manager of Parklane International Hotel, supported the move.
“Actually, it should have been banned long ago. As a diver myself, I’ve been been campaigning for it,” she said.
Last Monday, the PB unanimously passed a resolution urging HRRAC to discourge its members from serving meals with shark meat as one of its ingredients.
Capitol legislators cited “indignation” from various sectors of the community, social media and recent publicity about the trade of shark meat in Cebu.
It said the need to “combat these environmentally reprehensible acts” because unabated killing of sharks can affect the balance of the marine ecosystem, on which many small Cebu communities depend on for food, livelihood and tourism.
PUSH FOR BAN
Yesterday, PB Member Jude Durano-Sybico, the resolution’s main sponsor, said he plans to push for a ban.
“When I was writing it, I actually wanted to use the word ‘prohibit’ but I thought that was too strong a word to use. We can’t impose it but that’s their menu (of the establishment.)”
“But if it was up to me, I would ban that regardless of the shark species. Even PAL was able to do it,” said Sybico, who represents Cebu’s 5th district.
He was referring to Philippine Airlines’ decision last month to stop shipping cargo that contain shark fins in all of their destinations after environment groups started an on-line petition against the trade.
Marco Polo Plaza in Cebu hasn’t served shark fin soup for years as a matter of policy.
“It has never been in our menu as well as other exotic items like birds nest soup,” said Kyra Cabaero, media communications manager.
A 2012 memo from the head office in Hong Kong made it official for the entire Marco Polo chain of hotels in the Asia Pacific.
Even before the memo came down, said Cabaero, the Cebu five-star hotel didn’t serve shark on the men.
“It’s not our thing,” she said.
A global campaign to stop the widescale hunting of sharks for their fins and meat has been going on for years.
The practice of “shark finning”, wherein sharks are hunted and their fins cut off with the remainder of the live animal thrown back in the sea where it drowns has been condemned in particular.
In April and May, Cebu Daily News front page stories highlighted the sale of sharks – a hammerhead shark displayed in a wet market in Daanbantayan town and the endangered species of thresher sharks being butchered for P50 a kilo by the shores of barangay Tangke, Talisay City.
There is no national law banning the killing or sale of sharks.
But a 2002 Cebu province ordinance protects thresher sharks, a species that does not prey on humans and is endemic in the waters of Malapascua Island in Daanbantayan, a dive destination made famous by their presence.
The ban was extended to whale sharks in Provincial Ordinance 2012-05 or the Provincial Fisheries and Aquatic Ordinance of Cebu.
It is illegal in Cebu province to “hunt, catch, possess, transport, sell, buy, distribute, wound or kill” both types of sharks as well as giant manta rays.
A pending PB proposal seeks to include three species of hammerhead sharks after CDN reported the sale of one juvenile shark in the Daanbantayan market last month.
LITTLE FLAVOR
Shark fin soup is a broth of Chinese origin flavored with chicken or some other stock. The fin itself has very little flavor and is used mainly to add texture to the dish.
The soup dates back to China’s Ming dynasty and was traditionally only consumed by a wealthy few. The fins were believed to have properties boosting sexual potency, increasing energy and preventing heart disease but there is no scientific study to support this claim.
With the increased prosperity in the Far East, shark fin soup is being consumed in vast quantities, placing a “crippling demand” on shark populations, according to conservation groups.
Philip N. Tan, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called for consumer action.
“We should also tell customers not to eat this type of food since the demand will trigger restaurants to serve them illegally.”
Alice Queblatin of Southwind Travel and Tours said “making a position on this ecological issue is good and speaks well of the government. It tells us our public officials are proactive, aware and concerned with this world movement on environment protection, positive image for tourism.
“Whether it will be followed is another story,” she said./with Correspondent Peter Romanilos
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