广西一鲸鲨疑遭渔民猎杀引网友众怒

Two fishermen have been detained in China over the killing of a whale shark days after one found fame online.

近日，中国两位渔民因捕杀几日前已在网上出名的鲸鲨而遭到拘留。

Pictures of a huge fish had been posted online by workers on an oil rig near Weizhou Island, south of Guangxi province, in early May. It soon attracted much admiration on China's Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo.

在今年五月初，广西省南部涠洲岛海域附近油田的一位工人将一条巨型鱼类的照片发布到了网上。而这张照片马上就在类似Twitter的中国社交网站--新浪微博上引起了广泛关注。

Then two days later, news spread that a whale shark had been killed and sold as fish food at nearby Beihai market.

不过就在两天后，据新闻报道，一只鲸鲨被捕杀并在附近的北海市场作为鱼肥出售。

Photos circulated online showed a huge whale shark being winched onto a pier by crane. Beihai police have confirmed the fish sold at the market was a whale shark, after they retrieved pieces of fish skin.

从网上流传的照片可以看到，一只巨大的鲸鲨被起重机吊到码头上。北海警方在取回鱼皮后证实，该市场出售的确实是鲸鲨。

The social media users reacted furiously, calling for the culprit to be held accountable.

在社交媒体上，网友反应激烈，呼吁将罪犯问责。

Comments exploded online, with many shouting "call the police" and assuming it was the same shark. One user wrote: "It's too cruel! Enough is enough!"

网上评论炸开了锅，很多人嚷嚷着要“报警”，并认为该鲸鲨和之前照片中的是同一头。一位网友写道：“太残忍了！适可而止吧！”

"No wonder these fishes are not coming anymore. You come again, you got killed again. What for?" said a user named Xiao Jun.

另一位网友小军写道：“难怪这些鱼儿再也不过来了。来一次杀一次，图啥？”

A Beihai police officer said that the two detained suspects - named as Mr Liao and Mr Huang - had told them the shark already dead and decomposing when they caught it, according to the China News Service (CNS) agency.

据中国新闻社报道，北海一位警官表示，两位被拘留的嫌疑犯，廖某和黄某，告诉警方，他们抓到鲨鱼时，它早已死亡而且腐臭。

They are now detained on suspicion of "illegal acquisition of rare or endangered animal", said the police, and could face imprisonment of 10 years or more if convicted.

警方表示，这两人因涉嫌“非法收购珍贵、濒危野生动物罪”而被拘留，若定罪，可能会面临十年或十年以上的监禁。