Despite that high-profile headline-grabbing move of the Peninsula Hotels to take off shark’s fin from its menu, the battle to save our endangered marine creatures is far from over. That’s because there are still many other species currently being peddled at menus of many luxury hotels in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Shark Foundation, a local charity group dedicated to marine conservation, have found that 80 per cent of local luxury hotels continue to serve a number of endangered sea creatures. The group didn’t have to ask anyone from each of the hotels; the menu is available to the public.

The brave move by Peninsula Hotels earned it praise from many sectors and set an example among hoteliers on how to be socially responsible while maintaining the brand. Many others may have been inspired but unable to emulate such a move due to one reason or another. They don’t have to copy Peninsula Hotel’s ban on shark fin; there are other endangered species on the list for their consideration.

While HKSF stopped short of saying serving threatened marine species should be banned altogether, it offers suggestions for sustainable operation of hotel restaurants.

“It’s not just about the hotels removing shark’s fin soup from their menus because there are so many other endangered species – and [the list] changes all the time,” said Bertha Lo-Hofford, the foundation’s programme director.

The study involved checking 167 restaurants at 44 high-end hotels who were serving threatened marine life, as listed by World Wildlife Fund as seafood to avoid eating, namely the orange roughy, monkfish, humphead wrasse, Chilean sea bass, bluefin tuna, swordfish, freshwater eel, tropical prawn or shrimp, camouflage grouper and members of the shark family.

Shark is the most popularly served species in the menus, served at 93 per cent of the hotels. Shark fin’s soup is commonly found at weddings and other special occasions. Since it takes almost ten years for a shark to grow into full size, it’s not easy to sustain its population given the current rate of consumption.

So far, a few hotels have had an affirmative response to the call. According to Ms Lo-Hofford, Marco Polo offers discounts on banquets if shark’s fin soup is not ordered. Mandarin Oriental offers free accommodation to banquet clients who skip shark’s fin soup. I think Mandarin Oriental’s offer is more attractive since free stay seems more valuable. In any case, both hotels are doing their part although there needs to be more efforts.

On a scale of one to 100, hotels were rated based on the number of endangered species offered and hotel policies to discourage their consumption, if any. The results — higher marks indicate better compliance — published last November are as follows:

81-100
(None)

61-80
JW Marriott
Marco Polo HK Hotel
Renaissance Harbour View Hotel
The Landmark Mandarin Oriental
The Peninsula
Upper House

51-60
Eaton Smart
Four Seasons Hotel
Harbour Plaza 8 Degrees
Hyatt Regency
Island Shangri-la
Kowloon Shangri-la
The Excelsior
The Langham Hotel
The Ritz-Carlton

41-50
City Garden
Conrad
Harbour Plaza
HK Gold Coast Hotel
HK SkyCity Marriott Hotel
Hotel Nikko
Hotel Panorama by Rhombus
InterContinental Grand Stanford
Langham Place
Mandarin Oriental
Regal Airport
Regal Kowloon
Regal Oriental
Royal Plaza Hotel
Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers
The Mira
The Royal Pacific
The Royal Park Hotel
W Hotel

21-40
Grand Hyatt
Harbour Grand (Kowloon)
Harbour Plaza Metropolis
InterContinental Hotel
Le Meridien Cyberport
Regal (Hong Kong)
Regal Riverside
The Park Lane
Holiday Inn Golden Mile

0-20
Harbour Grand (Hong Kong)