“How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief. We firmly believe the trade must stop, and it must stop now, or else these animals will eventually face extinction.” ~ Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton of WildLifeRisk 

Breaking: The team from the Oceanic Preservation Society—makers of the Oscar winning documentary The Cove  (2009)—joined Hong Kong activists Paul Hilton and Alex Hofford of WildLifeRisk to document the bust of the world’s largest slaughter house of endangered sharks at a factory in China’s Zhejiang Province, according to a statement released by OPS today.

Watch as they expose factory owner Mr. Li Guang by posing as an international seafood trading company:

China Whale Sharks from WildLifeRisk on Vimeo.

Louie Psihoyos, photographer, filmmaker and Executive Director of OPS said, “The scale of this operation is staggering. Thanks to the work of WildLifeRisk and others that have to remain unnamed to continue this dangerous and important work, we have a real shot at shutting Mr. Li down.” The footage from the bust will appear in OPS’s next film The Heist set for release later this year.

 For more information on the bust check out WildLifeRisk’s full report.