For these reasons, whenever I'm offered shark's fin soup, usually in a celebratory banquet setting such as a wedding or elder's birthday, I always refuse. When pressed, I cheerfully explain. Being half-Chinese and married into a Cantonese family, this situation comes up more often than I'd like. My fondest hope is that shark's fin soup will soon become obsolete, not because the sharks have become extinct, but because people no longer choose to eat it.