A Chinese influencer is under police investigation after a clip of her roasting and eating a great white shark went viral. Footage of the vlogger, known by her online pseudonym Tizi, showed her feasting on the predatory fish, which police in the central city of Nanchong confirmed was a great white. “It may look vicious, but its meat is truly very tender,” Tizi said while tearing off large chunks of the animal’s barbecued meat, in a video posted in mid-July. In the video, since deleted, she is seen unwrapping a…
Tag: Wildlife
Ancient forest found at bottom of huge sinkhole in China
An ancient forest has been found at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in China, with trees up to 40 metres (130ft) tall. Scientists believe it could contain undiscovered plant and animal species. Cave explorers in the Guangxi region of southern China alerted scientists when they found the sinkhole, which had a primitive forest inside. Among 30 sinkholes in Leye County this is the largest, at 306 metres long, 150 metres wide and 192 metres deep. An aerial photo shows a different karst sinkhole in Leye County in 2020. Photograph:…
What really happened at Geneva’s crucial biodiversity negotiations?
For talks that are meant to be about halting the mass extinction of life on Earth, the slow pace of negotiations in Geneva ahead of Cop15, the major biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, later this year, was not a hopeful sign that meaningful action would follow. As discussions drew to a close this week, little progress was made on the targets and goals that are meant to herald nature’s “Paris moment”. Rhetoric from rich developed nations about the need for ambition on halting biodiversity loss was not being followed through…
Bisquey business: Maine politicians bemoan China lobster deal flop
China has failed to live up to its promise to buy more Maine lobster under a deal that opened the door to an easing of a trade war under Donald Trump, Maine’s congressional leaders say. Maine’s lobster industry was hurt by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in 2018 but failed to see substantial export gains after China committed to buying an additional $200bn in US goods, the delegation contends. Under the “Phase One Agreement”, China was supposed to increase purchases above 2017 levels. But China has bought “almost no lobster above 2017…
Illegal overfishing by Chinese trawlers leaves Sierra Leone locals ‘starving’
Along Tombo’s crumbling waterfront, dozens of hand-painted wooden boats are arriving in the blistering midday sun with the day’s catch for the scrum of the market in one of Sierra Leone’s largest fishing ports. In a scrap of shade at the bustling dock, Joseph Fofana, a 36-year-old fisherman, is repairing a torn net. Fofana says he earns about 50,000 leone (£3.30) for a brutal, 14-hour day at sea, crammed in with 20 men, all paying the owner for use of his vessel. “This is the only job we can do,”…
Major UN biodiversity summit delayed for third time due to pandemic
A key United Nations biodiversity summit has been delayed for a third time due to the pandemic, the Chinese environment ministry has announced, as environmentalists pledged the delay would “not mean taking our foot off the pedal”. In a statement, the Chinese ministry of ecology and environment confirmed that Cop15, the biggest biodiversity summit in a decade, would be delayed, and that negotiations for this decade’s targets will be split into two phases so that governments can meet face-to-face in Kunming, China, in the first half of 2022. The talks…