TIL that in 2006, 75% of Chinese didn't know that sharks were killed to make shark fin soup. But now, 91% of Chinese support a nationwide ban, thanks to activism work by Yao Ming and others

FOR YAO MING, SAVING SHARKS IS A SLAM DUNK

SHARK POPULATIONS across the globe have been in decline for decades, with approximately 100 million sharks removed from the oceans each year. Demand for shark fin soup drives such relentless fishing, accounting for 73% of sharks harvested from the seas, and as a result 1 in 4 shark species are now endangered.

Despite such dire projections, there may be some hope for sharks yet, and it comes from the unlikeliest of sources.

Yao Ming, the eight-time NBA all-star who played for the Houston Rockets from 2002 to 2011, is a conservation all-star in his own right. Through a partnership with the conservation organization WildAid, Ming has become the face of the movement to end the consumption of shark fins in China.

Shark fin soup has been a popular delicacy among the Chinese elite for generations. While shark fins contain little meat, sharks are often sought purely for their expensive fins to fuel demand for soup. Dismembered sharks are often tossed overboard to drown or bleed to death after their fins have been hacked off, decimating populations of sharks and the ecosystems they occupy.

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