Massive whale shark caught by a Chinese fisherman in the waters off Fujian province occurred over the weekend. The incident recently caught social media attention, mainly because of the way the massive whale shark was transported on land.
According to the Daily Mail, 48-year-old fisherman Cai Chengzhu spotted the 16-foot-long whale shark on his fishing net. Apparently, it made him proud enough for him to heave it ashore and drag it onto the street. He afterwards dumped the massive whale shark atop a truck and drove it to the nearest market for half-an-hour.
It appears as if Chengzhu did not have inkling that the massive whale shark, estimated at 14-and-a-half-foot and weighing 2 tons, was an endangered animal. According to regulations, whale sharks should be set free immediately if caught.
Photos of the massive whale shark quickly made their way to Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter. The photos caused a bit of a stir in China, where the whale shark is also considered endangered, thus illegal to catch and sell.
A protected species around the world, images of the massive whale shark hauled through the Xiangzhi town in Fujian province became viral on Weibo. Many are in opposition of what Chengzhu has done.
However, in a report by Yahoo, local media reports said the captain claimed his catching of the massive whale shark had been an accident. He said that the massive whale shark got only got stuck in his net and died as the fishing crew tried to release it.
According to a News 163 report, Chengzhu told them that he and his workers had been lifting their net out of the water when they saw a huge hole on the side.
Chengzhu said of finding the massive whale shark, It's believed that the giant creature broke the net and got inside to eat the fish we caught.'
He added, 'As you can see it had eaten a fair few but after being trapped in the net, it had died', in the interview translated by the Shanghaiist.
The Daily Mail said that Chengzhu also told local media he was not aware that it was a whale shark.
The fisherman also told how the massive whale shark struggled to escape the net. However, it died shortly afterwards so Chengzhu took it to shore along with the his other catch.
He said he tried to free the shark but was too late, 'By the time we managed to free it, sadly it was too late.'
According to the Daily Mail, he also said, 'It was really unfortunate and we did our best to free it. But having caught it and because it was already dead, it seemed a shame to waste it.'
The Independent reports that Chengzhu attempted to gain between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan for the massive whale shark, that's around $3500 at the wholesale market in Xiangzhi. He was however stopped by Fujian fishery officials before he could sell its carcass.
According to independent website news.com.au, massive whale sharks in China, as in all other parts of the world, are a vulnerable species. It is known that buying or selling of the species is considered illegal. However, because of the fact that the shark was already dead when brought to land, things can be different for Chengzhu.
Chengzhu said, 'I asked the fish market officials that monitor this sort of thing, and they said that as it was already dead when we caught it and as it was there we may as well sell it.'
While officials believe Chengzhu's story, many are sceptics and doubt his story catching the massive whale shark. According to Yahoo, whale sharks are filter feeders and they have not been known to break into a fisherman's net trying to eat fish.
Species of the massive whale shark are already dwindling in numbers across the world. They are a protected species in China, and black market salesmen will be punished with hefty fines if found guilty of poaching them.
Massive whale shark caught by a Chinese fisherman is also called Rhincodon typus. It was first discovered in South Africa in 1829 and is known to be the largest known extant fish species. It can grow up to as long as 30 feet and can live up to 100 years undisturbed.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
