Bite-Back is an influential and pioneering shark and marine conservation charity. With the law of supply and demand as its cornerstone, Bite-Back puts pressure on restaurants, fishmongers and retailers to remove threatened fish species from menus and fish counters, effectively lowering the trade in these vulnerable species. Among its successes, Bite-Back and its supporters have inspired 85% of the
UK's major food retailers to halt the sale of certain species including shark, swordfish, marlin, monkfish and orange roughy. One of Bite-Back's landmark projects is Hacked Off. Celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have hooked up with the UK shark and marine conservation charity Bite-Back to help launch its ‘Hacked Off!’ campaign that aims to make Britain the first country in the world to ban the controversial dish, shark fin soup from restaurants. The nationwide campaign has been developed in response to estimates that 36 million sharks are slaughtered every year, many simply for their fins that are used as a title ingredient in shark fin soup. The charity’s campaign will now target over 65 identified UK restaurants and work to educate and inspire them to stop selling the dish. Likened to the lucrative business of hunting elephants for their tusks many sharks are caught and, while still alive, have their fins hacked off before the body is dumped overboard. Since the 1950s some shark populations have fallen by 90% leaving conservation groups and scientists fearful for the survival of some species.
