Yao Ming and British tycoon Richard Branson have joined forces to help save sharks from extinction.

On Thursday in Shanghai, they held a meeting with a group of 30 of China’s richest and most influential businesspeople to try to cut down on the demand for shark fin soup, a traditional delicacy, despite efforts to ban their use and trade.

The event, sponsored by the conservation group WildAid, is aimed at starting a conservation movement in China “not just to protect the sharks but to protect tigers, and to protect other species that are in peril of extinction,” Branson said.

“When demand happens, the buying happens and the killing happens,” said Yao. He says he is using his post-retirement free time to campaign against the slaughter of 1.5 million sharks a week that is taking some of the species close to extinction.

Click here for more details and photos of Yao and Richard Branson at the event.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Charity work, China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.