A Chinese food blogger has been fined £15,000 ($18,500) after posting a video of her illegally buying, preparing and eating a six-foot long great white shark.
The blogger, who goes by the name Tizi, posted the video on Chinese social media site Douyin last year. In it she is seen posing next to the dead shark outside a shop before later slicing it in half and cooking it over an open fire and then sautéing it in a wok.
Police began investigating the influencer, who has almost eight million followers on her channel, in August last year after the viral clip “sparked outrage among many Chinese viewers”, CBS News reported.
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According to an official statement from authorities in Nanchong, a city in Sichuan province, the blogger, who is identified only by the name Jin, was found to have violated China’s wild animal protection law after the shark was identified as a great white from tissue samples. Two other individuals involved in catching and selling the animal were also arrested.
Insider previously reported that Tizi has posted videos of other extreme-eating challenges – known as mukbang videos – including eating crocodiles and ostriches.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), great white sharks are considered a vulnerable species, with a “high risk” of extinction in the wild.
They are also legally protected in China, said Insider, and illegal possession of one can lead to a prison term of between five and ten years.
China imposed “a total ban on the buying, selling, and consumption of wild animals”, added the Independent, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic “to prevent activities scientists say may have caused the deadly coronavirus.
“This has also led to a crackdown on viral binge-eating videos,” added the news site.
