No (shark fin) soup for you!

California’s ban on the possession or sale of shark fins was upheld by a federal judge last week.

The ban, passed in 2011, was challenged as discriminatory against the Chinese community—which considers shark fin soup a delicacy—and exceeding the state’s authority to regulate fishing, according to SFGate.com.

As federal law prohibits finning—the removal of fins from live sharks—but not the possession or sale of shark fins, President Obama’s administration briefly supported the lawsuit, maintaining that the California law hindered a commercial fishing market that federal regulations are designed to preserve.

Following discussions with state Fish and Wildlife officials, the administration changed its stance, telling the court that the state and federal laws could be balanced; U.S. District Judge William Orrick III of San Francisco cited the federal government’s reversal in upholding the state law.