Caviar 'queen': Chinese roe reigns around the world

Yahoo – AFP, Ludovic EHRET, December 12, 2019

A sturgeon at a fishery run by Chinese caviar company Kaluga Queen in Qiandao
lake, Zhejiang province (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

The caviar on the menu of Michelin-starred restaurants may come from an unexpected place: China.

The country has endured embarrassing food scandals in recent years, but its sturgeon eggs have gained the respect of caviar connoisseurs around the world.

It has also become pricier for US buyers as Chinese caviar is among the slew of products hit with 25 percent tariffs in the US-China trade war.

The bulk of China's production comes from a picturesque lake ringed by mountains in eastern Zhejiang province where industry leader Kaluga Queen breeds the giant fish.

The brand was created in 2005 by experts who worked for the ministry of agriculture and it now produces more than a third of the world's caviar, making China the global leader.

The company's sturgeon farm is a 20-minute boat ride away from the shore in Qiandaohu, or Thousands Islands Lake.

Qiao Yuwen, a breeder, stood at the edge of the pools where the animals live until they are between the ages of seven and 15.

The biggest sturgeons can grow to be four meters (13 feet) long and weigh 300 kilos (660 pounds).

An employee of Chinese caviar company Kaluga Queen cuts open a sturgeon 

for its roe (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

"They're like our babies. We see them from when they're very young, so it's hard when they are sent to be slaughtered," Qiao said.

"But there's also, of course, the satisfaction of having contributed to making an exceptional product," he said before throwing pellets containing shrimp, peas and vitamins to the fish.

'Price of a Ferrari'

For a long time, Iran and Russia fished sturgeon in the wild in the Caspian Sea.

But the fish population was nearly decimated by overfishing and poaching after the Soviet Union, which had regulated fishing, fell in 1991.

Sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea was banned in 2008 while sturgeon farms have sprung up everywhere, with Italy, France and China among the world leaders in the industry.

Kaluga Queen has 300 employees looking after some 200,000 sturgeons.

Once they reach sexual maturity, females are fished out and taken to a laboratory where they are stunned before their bellies are sliced open to extract the black eggs.

The roe is then washed, sorted, salted and placed in boxes.

Kaluga Queen produced 86 tonnes of caviar last year, most of it destined for exports, with half going to the European Union, 20 percent to the United States and 10 percent to Russia.

Kaluga Queen produced 86 tonnes of caviar last year, most of it destined for 

exports, with half going to the European Union, 20 percent to the United States 

and 10 percent to Russia (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

Depending on the species, the price per kilo varies between 10,000 and 180,000 yuan ($1,420 to $25,600).

Sturgeons producing the most expensive caviar can carry as much as two million yuan worth of eggs.

"It's the price of a Ferrari," said Xia Yongtao, the company's vice president.

'Very good caviar'

Kaluga Queen has walked a "long road" to win the trust of customers since the company produced its first jar in 2006, Xia said.

Chinese caviar had to overcome scepticism from foreign clients who were used to headlines about food scandals, from contaminated milk powder to soy sauce containing arsenic and rice tainted with cadmium.

"A few years ago, customers were reluctant when we talked about Chinese caviar," said Raphael Bouchez, president of Kaviari, a Paris-based supplier to renowned restaurants.

Bouchez convinced customers by explaining how Chinese producers raise fish and use methods that respect the environment.

"Chinese caviar, it must be said, is a very good caviar," Bouchez said.

The bulk of China's caviar production comes from a picturesque lake ringed 

by mountains in eastern Zhejiang province (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

"That said, many of the chefs still do not want it. They prefer to have caviar from France, Uruguay, or elsewhere," he said.

Today, Kaluga Queen has an annual turnover of 220 million yuan and counts among its customers German airline Lufthansa and L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, a two Michelin stars restaurant in Shanghai.

Distributors supply other restaurants around the world, and one buyer said he had delivered one shipment to Kim Jong Un, according to Xia.

French chef Guy Savoy, whose Paris restaurant has three Michelin stars and is rated the best in the world, uses Chinese caviar with skate wings and scallops.

"The label 'made in China' does not matter," Savoy told AFP. "The important thing is the quality of the breeding. Those supplied to us are of remarkable quality."

Lily Liu, Kaluga Queen's marketing manager, hopes someone else can try her company's caviar.

"We hope that Donald Trump will taste our caviar and say: 'I like it! Let's reduce tariffs and help Chinese caviar conquer America!"

Mussels, 'super-filters' that can help beat water pollution

Yahoo – AFP, Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS, August 18, 2019

Like canaries in a coal mine, mussels have long been used as 'bio-indicators' of
the health of the seas, lakes and rivers they inhabit (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET)

Paris (AFP) - Seafood lovers who prize the mussel for its earthy taste and succulent flesh may be unaware of its growing potential in the fight against water pollution.

The mussel is the hoover of the sea, taking in phytoplankton for nourishment along with microplastics, pesticides and other pollutants -- which makes it an excellent gauge.

One day, it may also be pressed into service to cleanse water.

"It's a super-filter in the marine world, filtering up to 25 litres of water a day," says marine biologist Leila Meistertzheim.

"It's a real model of bioaccumulation of pollutants generally speaking."

As they pump and filter the water through their gills in order to feed and breathe, mussels store almost everything else that passes through -- which is why strict health rules apply for those destined for human consumption.

Like canaries in a coal mine, mussels have long been used as "bio-indicators" of the health of the seas, lakes and rivers they inhabit.

Little-known pollutants can turn up to join the usual suspects, with increasing attention paid to microplastics containing bisphenol A and phthalates, both thought to be endocrine disruptors.

Meistertzheim heads a study for France's Tara Ocean Foundation using mussels to gauge the health of the estuaries of the Thames, Elba and Seine rivers.

The mussels, placed in fish traps, are submerged in the waters for a month before researchers dissect them to determine what chemical substances lurk in their tissues.

The idea of deploying mussels across the oceans to absorb ubiquitous microplastics is just a dream for now, but for other pollutants, the bivalves are already at work.

"In some places, mussels are used, as well as oysters, to cleanse the sea of pesticides, for example," Meistertzheim notes.

E. coli busters

Richard Luthy, an environmental engineer from California's Stanford University, says that, in most cases, mussels harvested from contaminated waters should not be eaten.

But if the contaminant is E. coli, mussels can be thanked for the "removal and inactivation" of the faecal material, he says, calling the service a "public health benefit".

The mussels are edible because they "excrete the bacteria as faeces or mucus," he says.

Mussels living in waterways affected by eutrophication -- often marked by abundant algae -- are also fit for human consumption, researchers say.

The phenomenon is often the result of waste dumped into the waterway containing phosphates and nitrites, such as detergents, fertilisers and sewage.

The nutrients in these substances encourage the proliferation of algae, which in turn starves the water of oxygen, upsetting the ecosystem.

Mussels "recycle" these nutrients by feeding on the algae, says Eve Galimany, a researcher of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Milford Laboratory who has experimented with mussels in the Bronx River in New York.

The recycling principle is already at work in a pilot project titled Baltic Blue Growth in Sweden, Denmark and the Baltic countries which grows mussels to be fed to animals such as poultry, fish and pigs.

"Eutrophication... is the biggest problem of the Baltic Sea, the most urgent one," says project head Lena Tasse. Mussels "could be part of a solution".

Why feed them to animals if they are safe for humans? Because Baltic mussels are too small to be of interest to seafood lovers, says Tasse, adding: "Swedes like big mussels."

Meanwhile, the jury is still out on the effects of microplastics on human health.

A recent report by WWF said that humans ingest an average of five grammes of microplastics a week -- about the weight of a credit card.

A 2018 study published in the journal Environmental Pollution, based on samples from British coastlines and supermarkets, estimated that every 100 grammes (3.5 ounces) of mussels contained 70 tiny pieces of plastic.

Should we be worried? Meistertzheim thinks not.

"I eat them," she says. "A dish of mussels is not necessarily worse than organic hamburger meat wrapped in plastic."

EU parliament calls for ban on electric pulse fishing

France24 –AFP, 16 Jnauary 2018

Philippe Lamberts and Ska Keller, who head the Greens bloc in the European
Parliament, display a placard against pulse fishing which involves dragging
electrically-charged lines just above the seabed to shock low-lying marine life
 into trawling nets

STRASBOURG (FRANCE) (AFP) – The European Parliament called Tuesday for a ban on electric pulse fishing in the European Union, defying Brussels which wants the experimental practice in the North Sea done on a larger scale.

The parliament, the EU's only directly-elected body, will now try to strike a compromise with the European Commission, the bloc's executive, and the European Council, which groups the 28 member states.

MEPs voted by 402 members to 232 in favour of the ban, while 40 abstained.

"It is a wonderful victory against a terribly harmful kind of fishing," said Yannick Jadot, a French member of the Greens party, who took part in the campaign against the practice.

Pulse fishing involves dragging electrically-charged lines just above the seafloor that shock marine life up from low-lying positions into trawling nets.

EU rules allow member states to equip up to five percent of their fleets with electrodes, and the method has been adopted in particular by Dutch vessels fishing for sole.

The European Commission wants to maintain the southern part of the North Sea as the venue for pulse fishing but to remove the five-percent limit.

Karmenu Vella, the commissioner for fisheries, argued that pulse fishing is safer for the environment than beam trawling as it reduces carbon emissions and does less damage to the seabed.

Beam trawling involves a large net attached to a heavy metal beam of up to 12 metres in length which is dragged across the seabed, ploughing it up.

Rebecca Hubbard, director for the activist group Our Fish, praised the vote as a "huge win" for European seas, low-impact fishing and the public.

EU parliament calls for ban on electric pulse fishing https://t.co/Ojo4KvvpRt pic.twitter.com/lEXiYidfR6

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 16, 2018

Related Article:

Top European chefs take electric pulse fishing off the menu

More than 200 top chefs across Europe have pledged to stop sourcing seafood

obtained by electric pulse fishing.

The black clouds hanging over the boats in Dutch ports are not the remnants of wild winter gales, but harbingers of another devastating storm brewing for Dutch fishermen pic.twitter.com/V4khrxhEnY

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 21, 2018

Top European chefs take electric pulse fishing off the menu

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2018

More than 200 top chefs across Europe have pledged to stop sourcing seafood
obtained by electric pulse fishing.

More than 200 top chefs across Europe have pledged to stop sourcing seafood obtained by electric pulse fishing, days before an EU vote that could expand the use of the controversial technique, an ocean advocacy group said Thursday.

"We refuse to work with seafood coming from a fishing method that condemns our future and that of the ocean," said the text written by Christopher Coutanceau, whose restaurant on the Atlantic coast in La Rochelle, western France, has earned two Michelin stars.

The practice involves dragging electrically charged lines just above the seafloor that shock marine life up from low-lying positions into trawling nets.

EU rules allow member states to equip up to five percent of their fleets with electrodes, and the method has been adopted in particular by Dutch vessels fishing for sole.

On Tuesday, the EU is to vote on the practice, which critics say harms too many fish that are left on the seabed, as well as those that are harvested.

"Electric trawlers produce catches of poor quality, fish which underwent stress and are often marked by post-electrocution bruises," according to the text released by Bloom, a French NGO.

"It is impossible to work with such low-quality products."

The signatories included French chefs Helene Darroze, Yannick Alleno and Olivier Roellinger, who has longed worked to improve sustainability in the fishing industry.

Spanish chefs Elena Arzak and Quique Dacosta, Italy's Antonino Cannavacciuolo and Alfonso and Ernesto Iaccarino, and Thomas Buehner and Heinz Winkler of Germany also signed the text.

On Wednesday, several members of the European parliament asked for a delay to next week's vote on electric pulse fishing, in order to allow time for an "informed debate".

For Jerry Percy of the Low-Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), which claims to represent about 80 percent of Britain's independent fishermen, a main problem is the lack of solid data on the long-term consequences of the practice on fishing stocks.

The method is outlawed in many parts of the world, including China, but proponents say it is more environmentally friendly and results in lower fuel usage for boats.

Bloom had already filed in October a case against the Netherlands with the European Commission, accusing the country of illegally authorising its trawlers to use the technique.

Giant lobster, destined for dinner, finds new home at the Dolfinarium

DutchNews, December 20, 2017

Photo: Louis the Lobster facebook page 

An 8.2 kilo lobster, auctioned off by a restaurant owner for charity, has been found a new home at the Dolfinarium amusement park in Harderwijk. 

The lobster, thought to be about 80 years old and nicknamed Louis, was the biggest ever seen by Haarlem restaurant owner Fausto Albers, the AD reported on Wednesday. 

Albers decided to auction the lobster off to the highest bidder who would then be able to enjoy a lobster-based meal. But customer Yvonne van Eeerden decided instead that Louis should not end up as dinner. 

‘I thought it was a shame to eat something so big and which had lived for 80 years,’ she told the AD. ‘So I decided to save the lobster and support a good cause at the same time.’ 

Van Eerden, who paid €400 to free Louis, had originally hoped to return the lobster to Canada, where he probably came from. That proving impossible, he has now been found a new home in his own aquarium at the Dolfinarium. 

The proceeds of the auction are going to the Ocean Clean-up Foundation which is attempting to remove plastic soup from the seas. According to local broadcaster NHTV, restaurant owner Albers has doubled Van Eerden’s donation.

China permits imports of Dutch shellfish to local markets

DutchNews, May 15, 2017

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

After two years of negotiations, Chinese authorities have opened their markets to razor clams imported from the Netherlands, the Dutch economic affairs ministry said on Monday. 

Razor clams are considered a delicacy in China and the Netherlands is now one of the few countries which can export the shellfish to the Asian market. The value of the export is put at an initial €7m a year. 

The Netherlands received permission to export the razor clams to China not only because of the high quality of the product, but also because of the Dutch inspection authority NVWA which is recognised internationally. Until now Dutch razor clams were exported mainly to Italy and Spain. 

Razor clams are found on the Delta region of Zeeland province and to the north of the Wadden sea. Regulations ensure the annual catch is sustainable, the ministry said. 

Noord-Holland province sees gold in growing seaweed

DutchNews, January 30, 2017

Noord-Holland province is investing €300,000 into research about the economic opportunities seaweed can offer the area. 

Demand for seaweed is rising worldwide: it can be used as food and also has applications for the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, sustainable chemicals and energy distribution sectors, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday. 

The province wants to determine how the region can attract investment and other economic activities related to seaweed. The research is being carried out by the Dutch energy research centre ECN, the royal institute for ocean research NIOZ and Wageningen university’s marine research unit WMR. 

Well-positioned

Noord-Holland’s position on the North and Wadden seas make the area ideal for pilot projects, the FD said. In addition, there are a number of companies and institutions which can contribute to seaweed ‘s potential. 

The research project will take 18 months. Expectations related to seaweed and algae are high in the fisheries industry. The Dutch institute for applied research TNO is currently conducting experiments into algae which can produce protein for the foods industry, pigment for the coatings industry or fuel for cars. 

Pioneering Dutch enterprise sets out to put seaweed on the table

Seaweed farming opens doors to new energy source

DutchNews, October 26, 2015

Seaweed grown in the North Sea will be able to provide as much sustainable energy as wind turbines by 2020, according to the Dutch energy research centre ECN.

The European-funded AT Sea project is developing textiles and systems for seaweed cultivation which it hopes will lead to large scale cultivation and harvesting in the open sea. The seaweed will then be used by the biotech, food and biomass industries. 

According to the ECN in Monday’s Volkskrant, tests in Norway, Scotland and Ireland show that seaweed can be grown and harvested efficiently, which opens the way for production on a massive scale. 

However, although the techniques are successful, there is still a long way to go, Groningen University researcher André Faaij  told the Volkskrant. In particular, food for the seaweed will pose a problem, Faaij, who is not involved with the research, said. 

The availability of foodstuffs will decline quickly during mass production, Faaij said. ‘Monitoring disease is also an issue during mass production, as it has been with intensive salmon farming,’ he pointed out.

Related Article:

Pioneering Dutch enterprise sets out to put seaweed on the table

Ocean threat from Hong Kong's taste for seafood

Yahoo – AFP, Dennis Chong, 10 Aug 2015

Hong Kong is the second-largest consumer of seafood per capita in Asia -- an

 average resident consumes 71.2 kilos (157 pounds) of seafood each year 

(AFP Photo/Isaac Lawrence)

Hong Kong (AFP) - A seafood lunch in Hong Kong is enjoyed by locals and visitors alike, but with threatened species on the menu and fishing practices that endanger marine life, campaigners want to change the city's appetite.

Hong Kong is the second-largest consumer of seafood per capita in Asia -- an average resident consumes 71.2 kilos (157 pounds) of seafood each year, more than four times the global average, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong.

Seafood is ubiquitous in Hong Kong, where

 customers often choose their fish live from

a tank (AFP Photo/Isaac Lawrence)

Yet the city of seven million has been forced to become one of the biggest seafood importers in the world as local waters are depleted of fish stocks.

Whether in high-end restaurants or waterside eateries, seafood is ubiquitous in the southern Chinese city, where customers often choose their fish live from a tank.

Baked lobster with noodles in cheese and deep-fried prawns in salted egg yolk are among local favourites.

But a "fish tank index" compiled by WWF Hong Kong found that more than 50 percent of the species available in the city's traditional restaurant tanks were from "highly unsustainable" sources.

"Overfishing is driving the collapse of the world's ocean fish stocks and edging many types of fish towards extinction, yet they are still on our menus," WWF Hong Kong conservation director Gavin Edwards told AFP.

"Hong Kong has a special responsibility to turn the tide as one of the biggest consumers of seafood."

Unsustainable fish include those caught by controversial fishing practices, such as using cyanide poison, or from overfishing already depleted species.

Popular, threatened seafood in Hong Kong include grouper, wild sea cucumber and humphead wrasse -- a coral reef fish.

Lack of information

The WWF has launched a new online seafood guide for Hong Kong detailing which types are deemed unsustainable.

Popular, threatened seafood in Hong Kong

 include grouper, wild sea cucumber and

 humphead wrasse -- a coral reef fish

(AFP Photo/Isaac Lawrence)

It also recently held a "Sustainable Seafood Week" asking restaurants to provide ocean-friendly options.

But there is still a way to go to change consumer habits.

Visiting Hong Kong for a post-graduation trip, Japanese student Ted Machizawa, 22, has just finished lunch in the coastal town of Sai Kung, famous for its seafood.

He says he had no idea whether his meal -- steamed grouper and shrimps -- could pose a threat to the ocean.

"We're just trying to see what it's like here. We are probably not too keen on knowing what kind of fish it is," he said, sitting metres away from tanks packed with live crabs and reef fish.

Hong Konger Janice Fung said restaurants rarely gave information on sourcing.

"If you go to an expensive restaurant or a specialised seafood shop they might tell you. Otherwise the information is not comprehensive," she said as she waited for a meal at Cafe Deco on the city's famous Peak, which serves a wide range of seafood.

"If you tell me what I am eating is not sustainable I will try to avoid it," she added.

Cafe Deco has opted to provide an alternative sustainable menu as part of the WWF push -- shunning the controversial delicacy shark fin, for example.

Ng Wai-lun, one of the owners of Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant on Sai Kung's

 promenade, says he would have to scrap 70 percent of the menu to make it

 ocean-friendly, something he fears would drive customers away (AFP Photo/
Isaac Lawrence)

"You can't necessarily tell the difference (in flavour)... if you don't use shark fin to make dumplings," senior chef William Chang told AFP as he put the finishing touches to ocean trout-stuffed ravioli, a dish on the sustainable menu.

Chang says restaurants should "take the first step" to change people's eating habits.

Some suppliers are also trying to help.

Banker-turned-fish farmer Mark Kwok hopes that by farming groupers, which are on the decline in the ocean, he can help stem the crisis.

His farm in the northern hillside town of Yuen Long was accredited as sustainable by the WWF in 2013.

"We have about 35,000 fish. Even if you were to eat all of them, it wouldn't make a dent in the ecosystem because these are farmed fish that have never seen the ocean," he told AFP.

Environmentalists in the Philippines say stocks of grouper are dwindling near the island of Palawan, a major source for Hong Kong.

"We have fishermen who say they used to catch them near the coast. But now, they have to go further out to sea," said Melo Ponce De Leon, spokeswoman of the government's Palawan Council for Sustainable Development.

Fear of change

Baked lobster with noodles in cheese and 

deep-fried prawns in salted egg yolk are 

among local seafood favourites (AFP

Photo/Isaac Lawrence)

Some Hong Kong restaurateurs worry that changing their menus would dent their incomes.

"Many of our customers are from mainland China and they want to get something they have never seen before," says Ng Wai-lun, one of the owners of Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant on Sai Kung's promenade.

"They like to pick the colourful ones... or something caught fresh from the wild," said Ng, pointing out a tank of humphead wrasse and groupers.

Ng says he would have to scrap 70 percent of the menu to make it ocean-friendly, something he fears would drive customers away.

But campaigners say progress has been made.

"We found in a recent survey that 80 percent of customers would not buy unsustainable seafood if they knew it was unsustainable," says Edwards.

"There is more awareness, but we still have much further to go."

Pioneering Dutch enterprise sets out to put seaweed on the table

DutchNews.nl, July 7, 2015

One enterprising Dutch firm is attempting to commercially farm seaweed and the initial results indicate it may be possible, writes Esther O’Toole.

Do you eat seaweed? No? Are you sure? Only around sushi? Well, think again. Seaweed is found in many consumer products from ice cream and processed foods, to vitamin supplements, toothpaste, mascara and biofuel. 

What is more, being a sustainable crop, it reduces fresh water, land and fertilizer usage. This versatile and tasty resource is drawing a lot of interest in international agricultural circles, including one prominent Dutch enterprise, The North Sea Farm Foundation (Stichting Noordzee Boerderij). North Sea Farm have been testing the nutrient rich waters north of Texel, with a view to getting seaweed on more Dutch plates in the very near future. 

Initially set up by Marcel Schuttelaar, of Schuttelaar & Partners, the foundation launched a proof of concept mission last November. Using two different growing platforms (one static, one flexible) and two varieties of edible kelp, they set out with the purpose of discovering whether the rough North Sea was suitable for this kind of offshore agriculture. 

This month’s first successful harvest seems to indicate that it is. Having laid 10 metres of line in the hopes of growing one kilo of usable product, they ended up with 15 kilos. 

North Sea Farm’s Koen van Swam says the partly crowdfunded project is now heading towards scaling up. The June crop is being independently tested for nutritional value and consumer safety and a second harvest is planned for October. 

Fishing industry

Seaweed cultivation can work in harmony with both nature and existing offshore industries like fisheries, sea energy and conservation. The North Sea is a challenging spot to cultivate with waves that vary in size from one to a whopping six metres high, which can sometimes make access to the platforms difficult. However, unlike more sheltered European growing areas (for instance in Norway and The Shetlands), the North Sea offers real space to spread out.

‘This is really pioneering,’ said van Swam. ‘If we can grow it here, we can grow it anywhere!’ 

The seaweed industry, he says, offers the chance for entrepreneurs from many traditionally strong Dutch trades, such as maritime transport, fishing, mussel farming and agrofood, to collaborate. North Sea Farm expects to help create jobs and offer ‘fantastic growth potential’ for all partners across the supply chain. 

This year the global seaweed market for human consumption was estimated at nearly $6m. The Dutch government is conducting research of its own and has estimated there is scope for up to 400 square kilometres of seaweed fields off the Dutch north coast by 2050, with no discernible negative impact. Seaweed is regularly used by fish as a nursery, so the impact could in fact be a positive one. 

North Sea Farm is equally ambitious as it sets out to raise in the region of €400,000 for expansion, hoping the green initiative’s early success will encourage new investors. That amount would allow them to grow 5,000-10,000 kilos of seaweed by next season. And to make sure the Dutch consumers know what to do with this superfood, they are also working on a cookbook.

China officials dine on endangered salamander: reports

Yahoo – AFP, 27 Jan 2015

File photo of a Chinese giant salamander in a glass tank during the China International

Conservation festival in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan province, in 2005 (AFP Photo)

Beijing (AFP) - Chinese officials feasted on a critically endangered giant salamander and turned violent when journalists photographed the luxury banquet, according to media reports Tuesday on the event which appeared to flout Beijing's austerity campaign.

The 28 diners included senior police officials from the southern city of Shenzhen, the Global Times said.

"In my territory, it is my treat," it quoted a man in the room as saying.

The giant salamander is believed by some Chinese to have anti-ageing properties, but there is no orthodox evidence to back the claim.

A waitress serves shark fin's soup at a 

restaurant in Guangzhou, southern China's 

Guangdong province, on August 10, 2014

(AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

The species is classed as "critically endangered" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of threatened species, which says the population has "declined catastrophically over the last 30 years".

"Commercial over-exploitation for human consumption is the main threat to this species," the IUCN said.

The Global Times cited the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily, which said its journalists were beaten up when their identities were discovered by the diners.

One was kicked and slapped, another had his mobile phone forcibly taken, while the photographer was choked, beaten up and had his camera smashed, the reports said.

A total of 14 police have been suspended and an investigation launched into the incident, added the Global Times.

One of the Shenzhen diners provided the salamander and said it had been captive-bred, according to the report.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a much-publicised austerity drive for the ruling classes, including a campaign for simple meals with the catchphrase “four dishes and one soup”.

The ruling Communist Party also says it is cracking down on the consumption of endangered species, including shark's fin.

China's legislature last April approved a law including prison sentences for people caught eating rare wild animals.

The Chinese government considers 420 wild animal species as rare or endangered, state media previously said.

A chef prepares shark fins for cooking, Aug. 6. (File photo/CNS)

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