Pictured is the more than 200-kilogram leatherback sea turtle before it was slaughtered in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province on Tuesday. (Photo/Screenshot)
A video of a fisherman butchering a precious sea turtle weighing more than 200 kilograms in South China's Guangdong Province has sent shock waves across social media since Tuesday, and experts said the exposure is just a "tip of the iceberg" in the killing of endangered animals.
The Marine and Fishery department of Guangdong Province told the Global Times on Thursday that the department has launched an investigation into the killing of a 208-kilogram leatherback sea turtle, which is a second-class State-protected animal.
The video showed the turtle being dissembled at seaside near Shanhai village in Guangdong on Tuesday afternoon. In the video, locals are clamoring to snap up the meat at the price of 140 yuan ($20.3) per kilogram.
The meat was sold out in two hours, the China Central Television reported on Wednesday, estimating that the sellers earned 20,000 yuan in total.
The population of leatherback turtle has been dwindling precipitously in the Pacific over the last 20 years, and as few as 2,300 adult females are left at present, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in 2013.
Not only sea turtles but many of the State-protected animals are at risk of being killed in China, Sun Quanhui, a senior scientific advisor at the international NGO World Animal Protection told the Global Times on Thursday.
Around 100 scalloped hammerhead sharks, an endangered species, were spotted piled up for sale at a price of 30 yuan per kilogram at a fish market in Sanya, South China's Hainan Province in April, according to previous reports of the Global Times.
What we saw in the media is just a tip of the iceberg, said Sun, explaining that most killings in remote areas remain unknown and hunters always manage to evade government regulations.
The WWF reported in 2015 that since 1970, China's terrestrial vertebrates have declined by half, which is blamed mainly on human activities and over-hunting.
"Dietary traditions should be blamed for misleading people to believe in the medical value of wildlife. For instance, many are convinced that wild animals' meat can cure diseases," Sun noted.
China's Criminal Law stipulates that people who hunt and kill rare and endangered wild animals could face punishment of at least 10 years in jail and fines.
Moreover, those who knowingly purchase endangered wildlife products for food or other illegal purposes can be sentenced to more than 10 years in jail in "especially serious circumstances."
However, the law is poorly implemented as it is difficult to spot such crimes, and buyers tend to claim that they were unaware the animals were State-protected, said Sun.
