A person has been arrested after pictures emerged online of a truck driving through the street in China with a huge whale shark draped over the back.
The drivers of the pickup truck arrive at a hotel in Fujian province Xiapu, and offer up their illegal kill in the footage posted by Pear Video on September 5.
The hotel declined - but not out of morality, it's reported. The catch was turned down because it was "too smelly" to eat.
The following day more photos emerged of a group of men cutting up the whale shark into 'more manageable' pieces in a parking lot.
Under Chinese regulation, whale sharks must be set free straight away if caught, and the protected species cannot be sold or purchased as meat.
Local government launched a police investigation into the incident and have since arrested one suspect. The government released a statement, saying they believe the man was trying to sell parts of the endangered animal. It is not known whether more arrests will be made.
Chinese social media users have condemned the killing on Weibo, a site similar to Twitter.
The whale shark is the biggest fish species in the world, and can weigh more than 10 tonnes in open sea. Their lifespan is an estimated 70 years, and they only begin reproducing at around the age of 30.
Newshub.
