The country's most exclusive restaurant gave in to protests from US and Taiwanese conservation groups yesterday and agreed to remove shark’s fin from its banquet menus.
“We plan to replace the shark’s fin dish in our State Treasure Banquet and serve artificially raised abalone and sea cucumber,” said Chang Yun, a spokeswoman for Silk Palace restaurant.
However, the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) has demanded the restaurant remove shark’s fin completely, not just from the special menu.
“What they are doing is removing shark’s fin from the State Treasure Banquet, but it will still be served to individual diners. We demand a total ban on shark’s fin,” EAST director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) said.
The Silk Palace agreed to the compromise after EAST and the US-based Humane Society International (HSI) urged the government to stop the banquet hall from serving shark’s fin.
The newly opened luxury restaurant is affiliated with the National Palace Museum.
In their petition to the Cabinet, the Council of Agriculture and the museum, HSI and EAST argued that Silk Palace was the venue for state banquets and drew many foreign tourists as well.
Of the restaurant’s four State Treasure banquet set meals and five individual diner’s set meals, eight include shark fin soup or shark fin dishes.
“Taiwan catches and imports a total of 600 tons [sic] of shark’s fin each year. Shark’s fin is a luxury food. Serving shark’s fin at the Silk Palace damages Taiwan’s international image,” EAST said in a statement. “Taiwan residents should boycott eating shark’s fin and the government should launch a campaign to raise public awareness.”
EAST said harvesting shark’s fin was very cruel because after cutting off shark’s fin, fishermen throw sharks back into the sea, letting them bleed to death.
Killing sharks for their fins depletes the population and the disappearance of the predators has serious consequences for the marine environment, the statement said.
A study of shark populations by the World Conservation Union has concluded that 111 species of sharks are under serious threat, with 20 classified as critically endangered, 25 classified as endangered and 66 classified as vulnerable, EAST said.
The organizations urged the museum to set an example by demonstrating its commitment both at home and abroad to protecting marine ecosystems and animal welfare.
The Silk Palace banquet hall outside the museum was built at a cost of NT$400 million (US$13 million). It opened to the public late last month.
A 12-course State Treasure Banquet for 10 people costs about NT$20,000, while an eight or nine-course menu for one person costs between NT$1,000 and NT$3,000.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
RSS