Upload A Video Of Buying And Eating A Protected White Shark, This Influencer Is Fined IDR 278 Million

White shark illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Elias Levy)

JAKARTA - An influencer in China was fined 125,000 yuan (IDR 278,495,047) by authorities, after he posted a video online showing him buying and eating a large white shark illegally, triggering an online reaction.

Police in Nanchong, Sichuan, launched an investigation in August after the woman, who was only called Jin, posted a video on the July social network in which she had 7.8 million followers.

He violated China's wildlife protection law by buying the carnivorous fish in April last year and then consuming them, officials said last weekend.

Jin, who goes by the name Tizi in his video, paid 7,700 yuan on the Taobao shopping site for the shark, which has been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a vulnerable species whose population has declined sharply.

In July 2022, the woman posted a video showing her taking a fish about 2 meters from the shop, posing with her to then cook and eat it.

The clip later went viral in China, with many complaining about atrocities against animals.

DNA testing from tissue remnants confirmed that it was a white shark protected by Chinese law. Two other people involved in catching and selling sharks were also arrested.

China imposed a ban on the total trade and consumption of wild animals in February 2020, to curb activities that scientists say may have caused the deadly coronavirus to move from animals to humans.

The country officially restricted shark fin soups a decade ago, but consumed certain exotic wildlife or their body parts remained popular, as claims often were not shown to provide health benefits.

The country revised the recent wildlife protection law to increase penalties for hunting, and banned practices such as hunting and consuming most of the wildlife from May.

However, some wildlife campaigners said the effort was not far enough to ban activities such as captivity.