This is the heart-breaking moment a finless porpoise appears to have tears in its eye as it is being sold for its meat at a market in China.

The animal, an endangered species, was sold at the price of 20 yuan (£2.2) per kilogram (around £1 per pound) on Monday, according to two animal lovers.

Finless porpoises, found mostly in East Asia, is listed as an 'endangered' species by the IUCN Red List. Trading of the animals is strictly controlled by international convention and banned in China.

Footage taken by eyewitnesses at the market shows tears seemingly coming out of the eye of the finless porpoise as it is being sold for its meat at a sea-side market in southern China

The marine animal was spotted at a sea-side market in the county of Xuwen in southern China's Guangdong Province, according to Chinese state-run publication People's Daily citing local news source Beijing Headlines.

Eyewitnesses Cheng Mingyue and Cheng Jianzhuang said the animal measured about 1.7 metres (5ft 7in) long and weighed more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds).

Footage released by People's Daily shows the animal being placed at the back of a tricycle and a crowd gathering to check on it.

One of the eyewitnesses Mingyue told Chinese video news outlet Pear: 'We saw a person bringing it to the market and many people came to look. It was crying throughout the process.'

A crowd gather around the finless porpoise which is placed at the back of a tricycle as it's traded at the price of £1 per pound in the county of Xuwen in China's Guangdong Province

It is reported that Mingyue and Jianzhuang initially thought the animal was a dolphin, and they wanted to save it.

The two young men paid the vendor 1,500 yuan (£170) and bought the 'dolphin' whole.

'The fish vendor lent us a puller he used to transport goods,' Mingyue told Beijing Youth Daily.

'At around 4pm, we pulled the "dolphin" to the beach and set it free.'

Mingyue said when they first released the animal, it couldn't swim far - possibly due to the fact that its tail was injured.

'Therefore, we carried it into deeper water and waited for two hours until we could not see it anymore.'

After viewing the footage provided by Mingyue and Jianzhuang, local fishery experts identified the animal as a finless porpoise, which is a second-class protected animal species in China.

Two men push the finless porpoise to the beach and release it back to the sea after paying the vendor 1,500 yuan (£170) and buying the animal whole. Finless porpoises are endangered

Different from dolphins, porpoises have shorter snouts, smaller mouths, less curved dorsal fins and shorter, chubbier bodies.

Finless porpoises are characterised by the lack of dorsal fins; instead, they have wider dorsal 'grooves'. They can be found along the coast of eastern and southern China as well as in the Yangtze River.

About 200 finless porpoises live in the Pearl River Region, where the incident took place, according to Hong Kong's Ocean Park Conservation Foundation.

The Yangtze finless porpoise, a type of freshwater porpoise, is deemed 'critically endangered' by WWF and is even rarer than the giant panda.

The Yangtze finless porpoise (pictured), which is critically endangered, is rarer than the panda

All porpoises are subjected to trade controls by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Hunting, killing and trading of finless porpoises are prohibited by the Wild Animal Conservation Law.

The Xuwen fishery authority has launched an investigation into the incident.

Officers have been in touch with the two saviours and the fish vendor to gather information on the fisherman who caught the finless porpoise.

The authority vows to punish relevant people upon the results of the investigation.