Renowned Food Critic Takes on Shark Finning

Pulitzer Prize winning culinary writer Jonathan Gold eloquently advocates for AB376, which would ban California sales of shark fins, in the Opinion section of the Sunday, August 7th Los Angeles Times . “There is no sustainable source of shark’s fin,” wrote Gold, noting that “nearly a third of shark species are approaching the point of extinction.”

Read Jonathon’s Op-Ed

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Gold, dubbed “L.A.’s most adventurous eater” by The New Yorker, is the older brother of Heal the Bay President Mark Gold. For the past 25 years he’s specialized in writing about ethnic cuisine, spending significant time in restaurants that serve Cantonese food, including shark’s fin.

In his op-edJonathan notes that Chinese culinary culture has proven to be resilient over the centuries, able “to withstand the absence of sea-turtle skirt and bear paw, whose preparation obsessed the earliest Chinese gourmets. There is no third way with shark’s fin – we either stop eating it because we choose to preserve the species, or we stop eating it because soon there will be none left to eat.”

Read Jonathan’s entire op-ed (new window).

Shark Fin Soup (Illustration by Wes Bausmith / Los Angeles Times)
Illustration by Wes Bausmith / Los Angeles Times