Stoney the Fishmonger manager Glenn Simpson shows a few shark fins that are for sale at the Herries St retailer. The speciality product retails for $50 a kilogram.

Stoney the Fishmonger manager Glenn Simpson shows a few shark fins that are for sale at the Herries St retailer. The speciality product retails for $50 a kilogram.

AN eastern delicacy usually reserved for the finest tables of Beijing has made its way onto the menu in Toowoomba.

Stoney the Fishmonger in Herries St has sourced fresh mako shark fins from long-line fishermen at the Sunshine Coast.

Shark fins are commonly turned into soup in Asian countries.

Robert Stone from Stoneys said he was always in the market for unusual seafood products and jumped at the chance to stock the fresh fins.

"Normally when you buy shark, which is a normal product we stock, you don't see the fin," he said.

"We were just lucky enough to be there when they were cutting them off (the dead shark)."

Mr Stone said ordinarily the fins were shipped off to the Asian market.

"I think there is a gap in the market, locally," Mr Stone said.

He hoped the fins would appeal to Toowoomba customers, who had previously shown a liking for shark flesh, commonly known as flake.

"I ate some shark yesterday and it was a really nice white meat," he said.

"The expat-Victorians are always chasing the flake."

He is yet to try the fin.

"I am always tempted to try anything new," he said.

"I just have to find out how to cook it first."

The delicacies are, however, considered a controversial ingredient - with some animal-rights group calling for a ban on shark fin soup.

In other countries, the fins are sliced directly from live sharks.

Australian law states that it is illegal to cut the fins off live sharks at sea.

The law requires fishermen to bring the whole shark to shore before removing the fin.

Mr Stone's fins retail for $50 a kilogram.