Streaming host fined for eating protected species

A live video streaming host who illegally bought a great white shark — an animal under national protection — and posted a video cooking it last year was fined 125,000 yuan ($18,427), authorities in Southwest China's Sichuan province said on Sunday.

Through investigation, it was found the host surnamed Jin spent 7,700 yuan to buy the shark via Taobao, a major online shopping site, last April according to the market supervision bureau in Nanchong of Sichuan.

Jin cooked and ate the shark and posted video doing so to video-sharing platforms Kuaishou and Douyin, the bureau said in a news release, adding the video went viral quickly and topped the trend charts of both social networks.

After DNA identification of a tissue sample, the shark was identified as a carcharodon carcharias, a wild animal under second-class national protection. Carcharodon carcharias is also known as the great white shark.

The shark cooked by Jin was worth 25,000 yuan, the bureau said.

Jin's actions violated the nation's Wildlife Protection Law, it said, and administrative punishment was meted out in accordance with laws.

According to previous reports by local media, the hunter and seller of the shark were arrested last year by local police in East China's coastal Fujian province.