The title of a new petition on Change.org keeps it simple: "Stop Selling Shark Fin Soup."
Started Friday by a Land O' Lakes resident, the petition addresses two Tampa restaurants — China Yuan Seafood Restaurant and Hong Kong House — for featuring the soup, which is popular in some Asian countries, calling the dish "cruel and unhealthy."
"Please ask China Yuan & Hong Kong House, the only restaurants in the Tampa Bay area that serve shark fin soup, to remove this item from their menus," the campaign says.
In 2010, sharks' relatively slow growth and reproductive rates paired with finning, which is super gruesome, caused their deaths to weigh in at 97 million, according to a study published in Marine Policy.
The petition has gained more than 100 supporters since its launch.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2015.