In Illinois, apparently, wardens are taking the matter seriously.
State officials announced this week that the first citation has been issued since the ban went into effect on Jan. 1.
Minghin Cuisine in Chicago's Chinatown district was fined $120 for possessing a single shark fin.
Restaurant manager Lee Joyce told the Associated Press on Friday that "everything is gone," that the restaurant no longer serves shark-fin soup.
Joyce added that the fin (pictured) was merely a display model.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources stated that the fin's authenticity was confirmed by experts at Chicago's Field Museum.
Shark-fin soup is regarded as an delicacy among affluent Chinese. Fins are obtained by a cruel practice called finning, which involves the removal of fins, often from live sharks caught in nets or on hooks.
Fin-less sharks are then tossed overboard, sometimes while still alive, to make room for more fins.
More than 100 million sharks are killed annually for their fins, according to some estimates.
--Photo is courtesy of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
