The world's largest slaughtering facility for whale sharks -- an internationally-protected endangered species -- has been discovered, near Wenzhou, in China's southeastern Zhejiang Province. [Photo/WildLifeRisk]
The world's largest slaughtering facility for whale sharks -- an internationally-protected endangered species -- has been discovered, near Wenzhou, in China's southeastern Zhejiang Province, the Hong Kong-based marine conservation NGO, WildLifeRisk said in a statement in January.
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The world's largest slaughtering facility for whale sharks -- an internationally-protected endangered species -- has been discovered, near Wenzhou, in China's southeastern Zhejiang Province. [Photo/WildLifeRisk] |
The factory, which operates openly, is reportedly slaughtering over 600 whale sharks annually to produce shark oil for health supplements.
Revelations about shark-processing at the factory, located in Pu Qi Township, near Wenzhou, follow a four-year investigation by the WildLifeRisk.
In a joint-statement released in January, Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton of WildLifeRisk said: "We went to Pu Qi three times in the last three years, and on each occasion the scale of the slaughter was truly staggering.
"How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief. It's even more incredible that this carnage is all for the sake of non-essential lifestyle props such as lipsticks, face creams, health supplements and shark fin soup. We are calling on China's regulatory authorities to enforce the international agreements on this illegal activity now, before these animals are brought closer to extinction."
According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which China is a signatory, the international sale of products from an endangered species is illegal and the trade is unsustainable.
However, the WildLifeRisk investigation found that countless basking sharks and great white sharks -- two of three species currently afforded the highest protection under CITE-- are also being industrially processed at the Pu Qi factory.