A Chinese food blogger has been given a hefty fine for tucking into a great white shark for a video.
Known for her mukbang videos, Jin – who is known as Tizi in her videos – broke wildlife protection laws in China when she bought and ate the animal in April 2022, officials in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan said.
Bloomberg reports Jin paid 7,700 yuan ($1,141) to buy the shark on Alibaba’s Taobao shopping platform. She then shared videos on Doutin and Kuaishou, another video-sharing platform.
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The shark measured roughly 6.6 feet and the videos show her picking it up before slicing it, cooking it and devouring it.
After being cooked and eaten by the blogger, identified only as Jin, it seems the shark came back to take a bite out of their bank account from beyond the grave.
Authorities have ended up giving the blogger a fine the equivalent of $18,500 USD after the video was posted.
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Jin’s shark mukbang went viral in China and she faced backlash for her choice of bizarre cuisine.
Mukbang videos usually involve influencers filming themselves eating large quantities of food. The food in question usually consists of a regular takeaway or a sweet treat... and not a great white shark.
In the video - which has since been deleted - Jin can be seen collecting the two-metre-long shark at a seafood shop in Nanchong before unwrapping it.
In the horrific clip, Jin said: “It may look vicious, but its meat is truly super tender.”
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She goes on to cut the shark in half, before barbecuing its tail and boiling its head in a broth.
She shared the meal with local villagers who all praise the food, while the blogger boasts: “This is so yummy!”
Jin claimed the creature was a hooktooth shark that was ‘bred in captivity’ and is ‘edible’.
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The same influencer has streamed videos of herself eating all sorts of wild animals, like crocodiles and ostriches, which has garnered her quite the reputation on social media, with 7.8 million of her followers coming from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
An investigation was launched in August 2022 while Jin claimed she bought the shark legally.
"These people are talking nonsense,’ she said, per the South China Morning Post.
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Bloomberg reports that two people involved in catching and selling the shark have also been arrested.
Great white sharks are considered a vulnerable species with a ‘high risk’ of becoming extinct in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Topics: Food and Drink, News, Animals
Gregory Robinson