Food festival condemned for parading endangered blue shark through street before cooking and eating it

A food festival has been condemned for parading an endangered blue shark through the street before cooking and eating it.

A video of the event at Plymouth Seafood Festival was posted on the Visit Plymouth Instagram page, before being removed after public outcry.

Blue sharks are listed as threatened globally, and although there are no restrictions on catching them in UK waters, marine conservationists think they should be offered better protection.

Visit Plymouth apologised for the video and explained that a local seafood cafe had been running its Instagram page that day.

The restaurant behind the event has defended its decision, arguing that the shark was by-catch and otherwise would be wasted.

A spokesperson for The Boathouse Cafe said: "Had we not cooked this beautiful fish today, it was destined to be used as crab pot bait. The choice was to either to throw this creature, dead, over the side of the boat, sell as crab pot bait, or cook it to be enjoyed, as we do many other species.

"The Boathouse does not condone shark fishing, we are firmly against the targeting of sharks for sport or commercially.

"However, we are also against the shameful waste of fish."

The video showed a group of men displaying the aquatic creature in front of a crowd of people, with a caption reading: "We have a Blue Shark here today! Ben will be cooking it later on this afternoon."

The Ocean Conservation Trust, which runs Plymouth's National Marine Aquarium, condemned the video.

Helen Gowans, the charity's public and community engagement manager, told the Plymouth Herald: "As an Ocean conservation charity, we do not condone the eating blue shark and were disappointed to see that a blue shark was shown off at the 'catch of the day' session, as well as being featured on the chef's stage.

"We feel that showing the public how to cook this species and then offering them the chance to eat it at such a widely attended event could be damaging, encouraging intrigue and thus demand for Blue Shark on people’s plates moving forward."