If the name Gordon Ramsay doesn’t ring a bell, his television shows such as Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen, Hotel Hell and MasterChef U.S. might. Ramsay is an internationally renowned chef with a string of highly successful restaurants across the globe, from the UK to Singapore, France, Hong Kong and the United States.
The chef is famous for being a harsh critic in the kitchen while judging other people’s cooking on his reality shows, but he recently decided to try something a bit different for his new endeavor — a documentary called Shark Bait, where he attempts to expose the shark industry.
Shark hunting and fishing — the practice of removing a shark’s fin and returning the maimed animal to the ocean to die — have had a serious impact on shark populations worldwide, with an estimated 100 million sharks killed each year, as Business Insider explains.
Sharks are being hunted not for their meat, but for their chewy, tasteless fins which have been seen as a Chinese status symbol since the Ming Dynasty, when the fins were cooked specifically for emperors. Shark fins are commonly served today at Chinese weddings, banquets and business dinners.
In Shark Bait, Ramsay investigates the shark fin trade in London, Taiwan and Costa Rica. In the clip below, he walks several blocks where thousands of shark fins are seen drying out on rooftops. If the shark fin industry is new to you, this is something you need to see!