Is it safe to eat shark’s fin soup in pregnancy?
Pregnant women are advised to avoid shark, swordfish and marlin because of the high levels of mercury in these fish, which could harm your baby’s developing nervous system.
International wildlife protection group WildAid, in a bid to stem rising global demand for shark’s fin, has also warned that eating too much shark’s fin can cause sterility in men because it is usually heavily contaminated with mercury and other heavy metals. Mercury cannot be removed by cooking. Yet, in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and most any city with a half decent Chinatown, you simply couldn’t attend an ethnic Chinese wedding feast or big banquet that did not have a shark’s fin course. While it may once have been the preserve of the wealthy, our growing affluence has put this Cantonese delicacy firmly on the menu of many upscale Chinese restaurants. Admittedly, the amount of shark’s fin in each bowl of soup is miniscule – one recipe called for 120g of dried shark’s fin to serve four to six people. However, since there’s no way to measure the exact amount of mercury in that particular fish, it is still best to limit any consumption of a fish that you know may have high mercury exposure.Having said that, unless you have a thriving career as a wedding planner, you will probably not be called upon to eat shark’s fin soup in any significant quantity. So the bottom line is how much shark there is in the soup you’ll be consuming during your pregnancy: Eating shark’s fin soup on a regular basis during your pregnancy may cause you to accumulate high levels of mercury, but if it’s just an occasional small bowl (perhaps just one or two over the course of nine months), it shouldn’t be a problem.There is also another issue concerning eating shark’s fin soup, although it is an ethical rather than health concern. In recent years, activists and wildlife conservationists have brought to light the controversial method in which the fins are obtained. Some are cut from living sharks (this process is called finning). Then the finless and still-living sharks are thrown back into the sea – the sharks are not kept onboard for their meat simply because meat is less valuable than fins, so all the cargo room on the ship is reserved for fins. These sharks, now unable to move, either die from suffocation or blood loss, or are consumed by other sharks or animals. Finning has been condemned not just for its brutality but the fact that it is devastating the shark population. According to Humane Society International, this will, in turn, adversely affect total fish population worldwide. Not surprisingly, finning is banned in many parts of the world, but activists say this has not stopped the practice entirely.Perhaps in making the final decision, you should also bear in mind that the shark’s fin is there not so much for flavour (because it actually has none) but texture. Much of what makes shark’s fin soup nutritious and taste good is everything else that goes into it. This varies depending on the chef and the standard of the restaurant, but usually includes ginger, shallots and garlic, mushroom, dried scallops and abalone, crab meat and eggs, all simmered in a broth made from chicken, pork or ham.