The Dorsal Fin

According to the article, Georgia Aquarium sinks teeth into new shark exhibit (please, disregard the bad shark pun in the title), a new 10,000 sq-ft exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta "treats sharks more like the hunted than the hunter, chronicles a dramatic decrease in their numbers, and seeks to turn around more than 30 years of bad PR."

"Planet Shark: Predator or Prey," which will open on October 3, will be an interactive exhibit will include full-scale models of sharks, shark jaws (models and actual jaws), as well as a frozen 10′ (3m) Mako shark. Mike Bhana, the exhibit’s producer was quoted as saying, "We want people to come away from the exhibit with empathy for an animal that has been mistreated for all the wrong reasons."

According to The Miami Herald, Chef Phillipe Chow will no longer be offering shark fin soup on the menu at Phillipe Restaurant. In addition to pulling the dish from his upscale Chinese cuisine restaurants, Chow is encouraging other Asian restaurants to stop the use of shark fins. According to Herald, Chow had previously focused on purchasing Mako shark fins from “environmentally friendly sources” but has since decided it’s better to end the use of shark fins at his restaurants altogether.

Kudos to Chef Chow for his change of heart on the issue and for encouraging other restaurants to follow suit. As I’ve seen so often on another shark blog, “It starts with one.”

In related news, The Times-Picayune is reporting that Chef Scott Boswell has removed shark fin soup from the menu at Stella! in New Orleans. The decision to remove shark fin soup from the menu comes on the heels of a review in The Times-Picayune that made mention of shark fin soup, which elicited some negative response from readers (see Readers respond to "Stella!" rave with enthusiasm, outrage. Boswell is quoted as saying that he does not know whether the shark fin he had been using was “humanely harvested” or not, and he currently does not feel right about serving it. Boswell also went on to say that he decided to remove shark fin from his soup recipe until he can get a better grasp on whether or not he should be using it.