环保人士：香港鱼翅商店试图隐藏自己的买卖

Photos shot in Hong Kong this week show more than 18-thousand shark fins drying on the roofs of industrial buildings.

The fins are spread neatly in patterns under a warm sun.

The images present just a fraction of the shark finning that takes place every year.

It's estimated around 75-million sharks are killed every year for their fins, which are considered a delicacy in certian parts of China.

Gary Stokes is with the Sea Shepard Society in Hong Kong.

"They used to dry the fins out in the street, a lot of the public -- there was a big public outcry. Tourism -- it doesn't look good when tourists are coming to town, seeing all these dead sharks on the street. Last year our video we found went viral, it's all around the world. They've obviously decided to try and hide their ugly game and they went up to the roofs."

In spite of the negative publicity surrounding shark fin soup, many shops in Hong Kong still specialize in selling it.

Leung Wing-chiu owns a dried seafood shop.

"These are the views of foreigners. If they have taken the shark meat, why can't the shark fins be used too? You have killed the shark anyway. Some say the sharks are thrown back into the sea after their fins are cut off. I don't think this is necessarily the case. It just so happened that some happened to film the fishermen throwing them back."

In Leung's shop, one kilogramme of dried shark fin can run from 100 US dollars to several thousand.

He does conceed his sales of shark fin has dropped off by around 25-per cent over the past few years, given the high-profile campaigns against shark fin soup.

Former NBA star Yao Ming has been a leading spokesperson against shark fin soup.

Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific has joined the crusade.

It's been banning shark products from being shipped on its cargo flights since September.

Several U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions have also moved to ban the trade and consumption of shark fins.

The European Union has also banned shark finning.

Gary Stokes with the Sea Shepard Society is among those pressing the Hong Kong government to end the sale of shark fins in the city.

"One of the cruelest and most barbaric elements of shark fin is obviously the finning. Not all sharks are finned. I mean, a lot of regulations are coming in where they have to land the entire shark. But it's more the global impact on the oceans' ecosystems. By taking out an apex predator like the sharks, obviously the snowball effect down the ecosystems will be uNPRecedented."

The Sea Shepard Society is planning to file a formal complaint to the Hong Kong government in the coming days about the most recent pictures of the shark fins drying on the roofs.

For CRI, I'm Shen Chencheng.