For the next 3 days Groupon’s London deal is sending people to eat shark fin at Shanghai Blues, a restaurant well known for its shark fin dishes. So far over 301 offers for dinner for 2 have been bought; meaning over 600 people could be eating shark fin in the near future.

Groupon deals cause a huge increase in people using the services advertised, and when shark fin is on the menu, the restaurant is undoubtedly going to have to order a lot more in.

Globally shark populations are being decimated with tens of millions killed every year for the shark fin trade. 390 species of shark are listed as endangered, threatened or vulnerable by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and at the rate we are going 20 could become extinct in the near future. Populations of many shark species have fallen by 90% since 1972, mostly driven by the shark fin market.

Finning is the brutal process where sharks are taken from the water, have each of their fins hacked off and are then thrown back in alive. It can take days for the animal to die. Not only is this practice barbaric, is it also hugely wasteful with 95% of the valuable protein being discarded.

The offer is going to be online for another 3 days and as of 1pm on Friday, 301 offers have been purchased. If the offer continues to be sold at this rate, potentially we’re looking at thousands of people descending on Shanghai Blue where shark fin is on the menu.