Great white sharks are protected species in China. Still, that doesn't stop a video blogger from feasting on one of the sea predators while millions watch. There is trouble not only from their followers, but also from the police.
In China, an influencer got into trouble with a video in which she grilled and ate a great white shark. The police are now investigating the video blogger known under the pseudonym Tizi, said the agricultural authority in the southwest Chinese city of Nanchong. In China, great white sharks are a protected species and illegal possession of the animals can be punished with up to ten years imprisonment.
Tizi, who has nearly eight million followers on the streaming platforms Douyin and Kuaishou, had released a video in which she unwraps a two-meter-long dead fish, places it on the ground and then lies down next to it to show that it is bigger than herself. She then cuts the fish in half, marinates and grills it, and simmers the head in a flavorful broth. "He may look evil, but his meat is really very tender," says Tizi finally and eats the fish. A number of users expressed their outrage in comments under the video. Tizi has since deleted the video on the platforms mentioned.
The police in Nanchong had already confirmed on Sunday that the animal seen in the video is a great white shark. The video blogger told local media she bought the shark "legally," which the local agriculture department says "doesn't fit the facts."
According to the classification of the international umbrella organization for environmental protection, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), great white sharks are considered "endangered". Shark populations have been decimated worldwide in recent decades. Industrial longline fisheries and the practice of shark finning, in which the animals' tail fins are severed and then thrown back into the sea, were particularly responsible for this.
