A famous food blogger who faced global backlash after cooking and eating a great white shark claims she was "truly fooled."
Tizi Jin, a Chinese blogger with more than seven million followers is renowned for eating exotic food.
But a recent video landed her in especially hot water after she ate a shark that is a protected species on Chinese wildlife laws, landing her a £15,000 fine after a government investigation last year.
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Following her taboo meal, she was nowhere to be seen for seven months, until she returned with a grovelling apology last month.
In new posts uploaded to Chinese video-sharing platforms Kuaishou and Douyin, she said she had been tricked by a seafood seller who insisted it was not a protected species and claimed he sold many of them every day.
Jin says she took the man at his word as she had bought other goods from him before.
“Some species of sharks could be eaten legally and that was what I assumed when I filmed the video,” said Jin, who lives in the southwest province of Sichuan.
“I was truly fooled.”
The sale and consumption of sharks not on a protected list is legal in China, where controversial dishes such as shark fin soup remain fairly common.
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In the four-minute video posted in July, she displayed the shark she had bought for 7,700 yuan (£925) before chopping it into two pieces and cooking them in different ways.
One half was cooked by boiling the meat in chilli and beer while the second half was marinated and grilled over a fire.
She then exclaimed to her followers how delicious the shark tasted.
The video predictably went viral before eagle-eyed experts identified the shark as a protected species in China, with authorities detaining her as well as two men involved in the sale of the shark.
Many Chinese social media users felt she got away lightly.
“If there isn’t enough deterrence, people will continue to imitate,” read a top comment to a Weibo post (China's most popular social media app) about her apology.
In her latest post, Jin said: "I would like to make up for my shortcomings because as someone who shoots videos, I should be spreading correct information.
“I reflected on my own mistakes and will keep learning new knowledge about marine life.”
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