Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium attracts visitors (Photo : Getty Images)
A video of a whale shark being butchered in front of a government office went viral. The whale weighed 8 tons.
The whale was butchered and filmed outside the offices of Risun Solar Energy Technology Corporation in Xinyu city in central Jiangxi Province. Authorities began investigating the matter after the video went viral.
The Jiangxi Bureau of Fishery Administration reported that the whale was a gift for the director of Risun from another company boss. The other company is based in Zhejiang Province.
The whale cost $4,000 to transport and was given to Risun for the employees' year-end bonus.
China is one of the signatories of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and prohibits the capture and sale of endangered sea creatures.
China signed the agreement in 1946 in order to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry."
Since 1981, China has banned domestic whaling.
The country also signed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
Brian Howard, a senior writer for National Geographic, said that the preservation of whale sharks is very important as they might become soon extinct. However, latest figures show that the situation for these creatures are positive.
"While international whale shark trade is regulated through the species' listing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), more needs to be done domestically to protect whale sharks at a national level," Simon Pierce, who led IUCN's assessment, said in a statement.
Howard added that the whales in areas like China are more at risk because the whales are used for food or traditional medicine.
He wrote, "They are considered a gold mine for fishermen because there is so much shark there. They are harvested for their meat, fins, and other parts used in traditional medicinal products."
