Celebrity backing for shark charity

Wednesday, 29 June 2011 09:29

Gordon Ramsay, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Martin Clunes are joining journalist and The End of the Line author Charles Clover in a new campaign to end the sale of shark fin soup in the UK.

The celebrities have signed a letter by shark charity Bite-Back calling for UK restaurants to stop selling the soup. The letter can be downloaded from Bite-Back’s website, signed by you, and given to any restaurant where you see shark fin soup on sale.

‘This is a perfect opportunity for individuals and dive clubs to reshape the survival odds for sharks by inspiring change in their own neighbourhoods,’ said Bite-Back’s campaign director Graham Buckingham. ‘In fact the letter is a call to arms for anyone who has ever been offended by the inclusion of shark fin soup on a local restaurant menu. We stand by the belief that the fight for the survival of sharks in a war that can be won on the high street as opposed to the high seas.’

Bite-Back has persuaded dozens of restaurants to change their menus including the UK’s only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Hakkasan. It has also prompted Wagamama to take shark off its menus and persuaded ASDA to stop selling shark steaks.

Download the letter at the website www.bite-back.com