Cut and Thrust

In a fancy Bangkok restaurant, a tureen of shark's fin soup will set you back as much as $250. But the real cost is to the environment, according to WildAid, a San Francisco-based environmental foundation. WildAid says the oceans' ecosystem is under threat from the annual slaughter of an estimated more than 50 million sharks, and the organization launched a print- and TV-ad campaign in mid-2001 that shows fishermen slicing fins off sharks and kicking them back into the sea to die. The ads also warn that fins might be contaminated with mercury. The campaign has been a surprising success, says...