The world’s first ‘plankmob’ has been performed in Hong Kong to promote awareness of the finning of millions of sharks each year.

Anti-shark finning campaign uses ‘plankmob’ to raise awareness
The marine conservationists proving their point lying down, planking style (Pic: EPA)

The public action, which is planking performed by a random group of people, aimed to encourage help in the protection of the 73million sharks that are finned by China’s fishing industry.

The excessive finning of the prehistoric fish is due to the Chinese delicacy, shark-fin soup, which has now gone from a luxury meal of the wealthy, to trendy cuisine, amongst China’s wealthy middle-classes.

The maritime conservation group Oceana, reported that with about 73million sharks killed annually, this has significantly decreased the animal’s population by 90 per cent. The level of decline has also led to the beginning of negative effects on the balance of the aquatic ecosystem.

The situation, which has caused concern across many animal rights groups and with eco-environmentalists, has been brought to mainstream attention by Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson and retired NBA basketball star, Yao Ming.

At a shark conservation campaign talk, Branson and Ming expressed their disapproval of shark finning and why it was important for people to protect the shark species.

‘The world is getting wealthier,’ said Branson. ‘In China in particular people are getting more affluent. And they can now afford to buy shark fin soup. So it is a major problem. And therefore, there is a major battle to try to reverse that trend.’

Protests and anti-finning campaigns continue to fight the battle against the killing of sharks across the world, to make shark-fin soup.