Chinese Food blogger, Tizi Jin Moumou, fined $18,500 for grilling and eating great white shark

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Food blogger fined $18,500 for grilling and eating great white shark.

A Chinese food blogger has been fined about $18,500 after she posted a video last year that showed her buying, preparing and eating a great white shark, an animal that is protected in China. 

The food blogger, who goes by the name Tizi, posted the video on Chinese social media site Douyin that showed her buying the shark, which appears to be about six feet in length, and then preparing it two ways: grilled over an open fire and sautéed in a wok. She then picks up the part of the shark that was grilled and tears strips off with her teeth. 

“Don’t be fooled by its scary appearance, its meat is very tender,” Tizi says in the video.

The fisherman and the merchant who sold her the shark have been arrested, according to the statement. 

The video, which went viral last year, sparked outrage among many Chinese viewers, with one replying on the Douyin site, “Truly horrific to the extreme.” Others commented about the possibility of legal punishment, with one commenter writing, “Now she’s done it, the next five years she won’t have to cook anymore.”

Jin reportedly purchased the six-foot great white shark in April 2022, the statement said. However, the controversy came to light in July, when filmed herself preparing and eating the wild animal.

The video was in violation of the “Wild Animal Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China.” Illegal possession of a white shark can also lead to a prison term of between five to 10 years.

She initially claimed to have bought the shark at a Nanchong shop, but it was actually purchased for 7,700 yuan ($1,141) on the Alibaba-owned shopping site Taobao.

DNA tests from tissue remnants identified the illicit meat as a great white. Authorities have since arrested two people involved in catching and purveying the shark for Jin.

Police started investigating the food blogger in August last year, after her video sparked widespread backlash. Jin had claimed that she had bought the great white shark legally, and said she was looking for a lawyer.

This is not the first time a content creator has been fined for illegally purchasing and eating a wild animal. Previously, a YouTuber faced a fine of up to $13,800 after filming herself eating a protected bat species.