It may seem unlikely, but sharks have friends too. Just ask American Express.
The worldwide travel and charge card company said Wednesday it pulled a TV commercial featuring a Hong Kong shark fin restaurant because conservationists say shark fishermen treat the fish cruelly."We certainly would not have produced the commercial in this way, knowing what we now know about the harvesting of sharks," said Mark Gordon, vice president of public affairs for American Express in Asia.
Fishermen cut off the fins and throw the sharks back into the sea to die slowly.
As catches have grown to meet an expanding Asian market for fins, shark populations have declined.
In Asia, shark fin is a gourmet delicacy, and the commercial was targeted at status-conscious Hong Kong viewers. It featured the Sun Tung Lok restaurant, where a bowl of shark's fin soup costs from about $25 to more than $80.
In the ad, owner Patrick Yuen says: "American Express has the same status as shark's fin."
Gordon said American Express had received eight telephoned complaints, all from Westerners.
Jo Ruxton, senior Hong Kong conservation officer at the Worldwide Fund for Nature, acknowledged the difficulty of turning Hong Kong gourmets off shark's fin.
"It would be like asking Westerners not to eat turkey at Christmas," she said.