Thanks to an ecclectic public awareness campaign, shark’s fin soup consumption in China has gone from a status symbol to a faux pas, and endangered shark species are getting a new lease on life: 

Thanks to a former NBA star, a coalition of Chinese business leaders, celebrities and students, and some unlikely investigative journalism, eating shark fin soup is no longer fashionable here. But what really tipped the balance was a government campaign against extravagance that has seen the soup banned from official banquets.

“People said it was impossible to change China, but the evidence we are now getting says consumption of shark fin soup in China is down by 50 to 70 percent in the last two years,” said Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid, a San Francisco-based group that has promoted awareness about the shark trade. The drop is also reflected in government and industry statistics. [WaPo]

Before the public awareness campaign, the average shark fin consumer didn’t even know that the unctuous broth known as “fish wing soup” was made from shark, let alone that shark fishermen routinely butchered their prey alive and tossed the mutilated animals back into the sea to die. When he learned the truth, Jim Zhang, became an anti-shark’s fin activist, and eventually changed careers to become a full-time environmentalist.

Once the word got out, the anti-shark’s fin backlash was swift and severe. Shark’s fin’s image was further tarnished by its association with official corruption. Lavish banquets featuring shark’s fin soup because a symbol of rampant expense account abuse by bureaucrats. The price of shark’s fin is dropping and some restaurants that specialize in the dish have closed du to lack of demand. 

[Photo Credit: SimonQ, Creative Commons.]

Sidney-winner Susan Greene reports on Robert Knott a Native America inmate who was posthumously reunited with his tribe after committing suicide in supermax prison. Knott had been struggling for years with untreated mental illness, a condition that was surely exacerbated by years of solitary confinment. 

[Photo credit: Detail of a pow wow dancer from the Ho-Chunk Nation, Robert Knott’s tribe of origin.]

When 14-year-old Daisy Coleman was found sprawled semi-conscious on her porch in sub-zero weather early one Sunday morning, showing signs of sexual assault, her family fought for justice against the high school football player who allegedly raped their daughter. The charges against alleged rapist and football star Matthew Barnett were dropped and the community backlash against the Colemans cost them everything. 

[Photo credit: jamestruepeny, Creative Commons.]

A blaze swept through the Aswad Composite Mills factory in Bangladesh, Tuesday, killing 9 workers and injuring at least 50 others. The factory made merchandise for the Hudson’s Bay Company and WalMart. This is the latest in a series of deadly industrial accidents in the garment sector in Bangladesh. Most garment workers die in fires. These deaths could easily be prevented by improving the wiring and fire evacuation systems in clothing factories. 

The 2013 Hillman Award for Broadcast Journalism went to Brian Ross and his investigative team at ABC News for reporting on garment industry deaths in Bangladesh. That same year, a special Hillman Officers’ Award was presented posthumously to Aminul Islam, a Bangladeshi labor leader who was probably murdered for his activism on behalf of garment workers. 

[Photo credit: Iconic Hudson’s Bay Blanket, by Whimsie Dots, Creative Commons.]