The carcasses of a dolphin and a small shark were found washed up on two different Tuen Mun beaches today, mere hours apart.
At 9:13am, a two-metre-long dolphin corpse was found on the sand at Castle Peak Beach, Apple Daily reports.
Two hours later and just a few kilometres away, the body of a 60-centimetre-long shark was found washed up on the shore of Butterfly Beach.
According to a government press release, a red flag was hoisted after the sighting of the “big fish” and the beach was temporarily closed “for the sake of safety”.
Marine police searched the waters around the beach but found no sharks as of 1:30pm, SCMP reports.
Shark sightings have become increasingly rare in Hong Kong, with numbers being sharply reduced by overfishing. The city handles half of the global trade in shark fin, which is considered a delicacy in Chinese culture.
A recent survey found that 98 percent of traditional Chinese restaurants serve shark fin for Lunar New Year dinners.
Yesterday, Cathay Pacific Airways was praised widely for finally announcing a blanket ban on the carriage of all shark-related products on its flights.
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