Some 200m years before dinosaurs made their appearance on earth and thus quite some time before Homo sapiens began celebrating nuptials at extravagant wedding banquets, sharks swam the oceans. Sharks are older than trees. They have survived at least four planetary mass extinctions.

The link between these ancient predators and contemporary wedding receptions is that, among Chinese people, it is a sign of generosity and prestige to serve guests shark-fin soup. Since there are more than 1.3bn Chinese people, and since they are getting more affluent by the day, that is of no little consequence to the shark population. Some 70m sharks are killed each year for their fins. Much of the time, the fins are sliced off with a blade at sea and the bloody shark torso thrown back in the water to die.

The California state legislature is debating a bill co-sponsored by Paul Fong, a Chinese-American Democrat, to ban the sale, consumption and trade of shark fin. Hawaii, Oregon and Washington state already impose similar bans. California accounts for 85 per cent of shark fin eaten in the US. The bill sailed through the lower house assembly, but is being held up in the state senate because of concerns it discriminates against Chinese Americans.