Chef Gordon Ramsay branded a hypocrite after going on a shark-fishing trip
TV chef Gordon Ramsay has been branded a hypocrite after going on a shark fishing trip.
Only two weeks after fronting a heartfelt documentary campaigning for an end to the slaughter of sharks, newly-released evidence shows him straining to land a 7ft endangered specimen on a fishing trip to Florida.
Now the charity that backed his TV plea is questioning whether he can continue as its patron.
In his Channel 4 programme Shark Bait he passionately attacked the wanton killing of 70 million sharks a year to make the soup, with each one tossed back into the sea to die after its fins are sliced off with a machete. During the programme he admired sharks in an aquarium and gushed: “They are beautiful unique individuals.”
He was shown going on a shark-hunt in Costa Rica and looking horrified as he declared: “This is hard to watch.”
Then, using the f-word 20 times, he persuaded restaurants to stop serving the soup, which is popular London’s Chinatown as well as in China.
Ramsay’s pleas for restaurants to stop serving shark fin soup led to him being named a patron of the Sharks Trust.
Trust chairman Richard Peirce said after being told of Ramsay’s shark-fishing: “We’re extremely concerned. In no way would we condone the targeting of sharks for trophy purposes.”
Ramsay was in Pompano, Florida, in the summer of 2009 to film the US version of Kitchen Nightmares when he sought out fishing crew Happy Snappers.
Captain Harold Heuff said Ramsay, his assistant and crew, spent hours drinking Corona beers, eating gourmet sandwiches and catching fish in 85F (30C) temperatures. When the chef noticed a mackerel had been bitten in half he approached the captain.
“He asked me what had bitten it,” said the 44-year-old skipper.Read More ...
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