Zhejiang authorities found many shark fins sold in the market are artificial products and some contain excessive levels of cadmium, a toxic metal.

The industry and commerce department in Zhejiang province conducted a check of shark fin soup, a popular dish often served at luxurious banquets. The inspection found many restaurants serve artificial shark fins made of edible gelatin and seaweed gum. Restaurants purchase the "shark fins" at a low price, but they are sold for up to 1,000 yuan ($160) a bowl in restaurants and hotels.

Similar results were found in an investigation by the province's consumer rights protection agency, which randomly selected about 10 samples of shark fin soup collected from local restaurants for DNA testing. No shark was found in any of the soups.

The consumer rights protection agency also found that about one-third of dried shark fin in the province's markets contained excessive cadmium and methyl mercury.

Local news website Zjol reported that ocean pollution can lead to high levels of metals in the sharks.

Experts said excessive ingestion of mercury will harm pregnant woman and the development of the fetal brain and nervous system.

Insiders said such artificial shark fins are widely available in local wholesale market.

"Many restaurants and hotels have bought 'shark fins' from me," said Lin Wenyu, a businessman at a seafood wholesaler that sells "vegetarian" shark fin (artificial shark fin) at the Shanghai Tongchuanlu Seafood Market.

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

(China Daily 01/09/2013 page3)