Noodle Chu 770 US Highway 46 Parsippany, NJ (973)

*Peach colored states allow shark fin soup. *Dark orange banned *Gray- unsure of laws

Humane Society on Shark Finning States and restaurants in the US that serve shark fin soup

Following are the main reasons for banning the trade in shark fins: 1. Shark-finning is exceedingly cruel. Sharks caught mostly with long lines are hauled into boats, have their fins cut off and the rest of their still-alive bodies cast back into the ocean. This is done due to the fact that while shark meat fetches less than $2 per kg, shark fins fetch up to $2000 per kg. 2. Each year, over 100 million sharks (by latest estimate) are finned around the world. Practically every country with a coastline does it, the "Big 5" being Costa Rica, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Indonesia (Taiwan has recently banned shark-finning). 3. Of the 450 shark species, one-third are endangered. Since shark-finning is indiscriminate, and almost no records are kept, there is no way of telling which fin in Chinatown belongs to what species short of a fin-by-fin DNA analysis. The Pew Environmental Group in the United States published a report in early August, 2012, on their country-wide DNA survey of random shark fin samples from 14 cities, which found that 81% of them were from endangered or threatened species. 4. Sharks are extremely slow reproducing. Whereas most fish spawn thousands of eggs every years, shark give birth to only 2-4 pups every 2-4 years. Most do not reach sexual maturity until years old. 5. Sharks are apex predators, which prey on medium sized fish, but not small fish upon which the medium sized fish prey. If sharks are wiped out, the medium sized fish would proliferate and over-prey on the small fish, and the entire oceanic ecosystem could collapse. 6. Shark fins are of little nutritional value, but due to their high cost are served in large banquets as a status symbol for the hosts.