It it is appalling that we still think eating Shark Fin Soup is acceptable, and will allow restaurants to serve this dish!

My name is Sophie Price, I am 15, and want to end this atrocity now. Although "Mandarin Kitchen" (a local restaurant in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea) is only one of the many U.K. restaurants still serving Shark Fin Soup, a small positive action reducing demand for shark fin soup can still create waves of hope in the world of Shark conservation.

Sharks are both intelligent and mesmerising creatures vital to maintaining the health of our marine environments. Unfortunately over the past 50 years, some of the largest and most impressive species of shark, the Great White, Hammerhead and Tiger shark have seen their populations drop by as much as 90%. This figure is partly due to the incredible demand in soups and other dishes. Not only is the destruction and finning of sharks (one of the oldest species on Earth) for food a brutal and barbaric idea, it is also adds very little flavour in the soup, and is more often than not used merely as a symbol of wealth and status. Moreover following the process of finning many sharks are still alive. Unable to swim effectively, they slowly sink to the depth of the ocean, dying of suffocation. An excruciatingly painful death that we cannot permit to continue. 

According to estimates from marine life conservation organisation Bite-Back, 73,000,000 sharks are slaughtered for their fins every year. That’s roughly 200,000 sharks a day or two every second. I hope that over my lifetime this figure dramatically decreases, so that future generations will not just see the word 'shark' as another extinct species, or a tooth as an ancient artefact in a museum, and instead appreciate the beauty of these mystical, ancient creatures.

I am calling on Mandarin Kitchen, Bayswater and the two local MPs for Kensington and Chelsea ( Greg Hands and Emma Dent Coad).

Please sign this petition and create change! Thank you, Sophie.