Lin said artificial shark fin is becoming more popular as Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, nears.

In recent decades, demand for shark fin has increased, raising concerns about the sustainability and welfare of sharks.

Each year, about 73 million sharks are killed around the world to meet the increasing demand for shark fin soup. The populations of some species have declined up to 99 percent, according to WildAid, a wild animal conservation organization that has advocated shark protection for more than a decade.

Sharks are often alive when their fins are sliced off. Since their meat is not considered as valuable as their fins, they are thrown back into the water to drown or bleed to death.

Many Chinese celebrities, including former NBA icon Yao Ming, have joined the campaign to protect sharks in recent years.

Many luxury hotels and popular restaurants have already taken the traditional delicacy off the menu, a move to help keep the species from becoming extinct.

But many hotels and restaurants refuse to take shark fin soup off the menu, citing commercial concerns.

"Shark fin soup is one of the major dishes at banquets. People believe banquets would be degraded without the traditional soup. Customers will not book banquets in our restaurant if we don't provide it," said a man who runs a seafood restaurant in Tianjin who declined to give his name.

Experts said shark fins are not as nutritious as many people believe.

"What shark fins contain are incomplete protein, of which the nutritional value is not as high as people expect," said Chen Shunsheng, professor of College of Food Science at Shanghai Ocean University.

wanghongyi@chinadaily.com.cn

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