Food Blogger Fined Nearly $20,000 for Eating Great White Shark

A Chinese food blogger has been fined $18,500 for cooking and eating a great white shark in a video posted online. The blogger, who goes by the name Tizi, has been identified as Jin by officials, who said she bought the shark on Alibaba-owned shopping site Taobao for 7,700 yuan ($1,141).

Authorities said in a expression that Jin bought and posted the shark in April 2022 Video on the social media platforms Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and Kuaishou. The videos quickly went viral and showed Jin cooking the 2-meter-long great white shark in a spicy broth and eating its meat. In the video, Jin says, “It may look vicious, but its flesh is really very tender,” before biting into the shark’s carcass.

The blogger is known for posting extreme food videos showing her eating animals like crocodiles and ostriches, gaining 7.8 million followers on Douyin for the post mukbang videosin which influencers film themselves doing extreme eating challenges.

When authorities began investigating Jin in August last year, she claimed to have bought the great white shark legally and told them so South China tomorrow post“These people are talking nonsense.” She had claimed in the video that the shark was “captive bred” and “edible,” but an editorial from The Paper, a state news site, said there were contradictions to Jin’s claims.

“It cannot be ruled out that there is a black market,” The Paper said, according to the UK The times. “Finally, to ship a large shark from the coastal region to Nanchong [an inland city more than 1,100 miles away]it requires coordination.”

Investigators identified the shark in their video as a great white through DNA testing of leftover tissues, and the Nanchong City Market Supervision Bureau said in its report that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs valued the shark at 25,000 yuan (US$3,704).

Jin was fined 125,000 yuan, or about $18,500. Authorities had already identified and arrested the people who sold Jin the shark last year, according to local media reports.

Great white sharks are a protected species in China under the Wildlife Conservation Law, which prohibits anyone from transporting, buying and selling them, and violators can face hefty fines or up to 10 years in prison.

These sharks are considered critically endangered according to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), which has reported that years of humans hunting them for their fins and teeth have significantly reduced the population.