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

• Shark fin soup: The taste of extinction (LA Times)

Help Save Our Sharks

• Take Action on AB 376Use our Action Alert to call your Senator and send them an e-mail urging their YES vote on AB 376.
• Attend the Rally to Save Our Sharks on 8/13
  Please join Heal the Bay and other leading environmental groups on Saturday, August 13, 10am, at the Manhattan Beach Pier to tell our State Senators to stop the sale of shark fins and vote YES on AB 376! Shark costumes are encouraged!

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-ed, Jonathan 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).

Illustration by Wes Bausmith / Los Angeles Times