"It's a once in a lifetime deal," said Dudas, 46, who has been fishing as far back as he can remember. "You fish so long to have the chance to see something so big. It's very, very rare." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/outdoors/fl-big-mako-shark-catch-0625-20110624,0,839130.story Very very rare indeed. Even more so now after this senseless kill. Anyone else just see this as a complete waste in this day and age? I can only imagine how many years it took this shark to reach this size. If it was a female then a true breeder has been lost. I saw Hammerhead caught and killed this way a few years back. It was about the same size. They cut it open and out spilled about 50 pups. I guess I'm just getting old.
But the fact is that the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim. Look you wanna be sure, I wanna be sure, we all wanna be sure. Now what I wanna do is very simple. The digestive system of this animal is very very slow. Let's cut it open. Whatever it's eaten in the last 24 hours is bound to still be in there and then we'll know.
I've read that there are no more monster sized great whites due to the same reason. Too many large ones have been killed and the breeding pool has shrunk in average size. Truly senseless.
While I feel sad at the loss of a great animal here, I don't begrudge those who eat what they kill. I have a problem with those who hunt just for sport. I see that as cruel. But when people consume the animal I see it as a circle of life thing.
I doubt it, whale is probably mostly grease. And I see legally hunting an animal and eating it as most likely conforming to balance and common sense.
Agree with Den; something this magnificent should be allowed to live out its natural life. You can go catch sharks anytime, as many as you want practically, if you just want meat. But to kill this one is a senseless act along the lines of the senseless acts that have made every large species in the world endangered at one point or another, or outright extinct in many cases. Besides, shark is tough, dry and tasteless, despite the declaration of "deliciousness" in that article; plus, a fish that size is bound to contain huge amounts of mercury and other toxins that a smaller fish would not contain...so I guess those bankers will get their just deserts after all, when you think about it.
Dudas and Ramirez then cut the shark into pieces to get it out of the boat and sent everyone home with plenty of delicious mako steaks. They were fishing for Dolphin. This shark just happen to swim in their path so it was a knee jerk reaction to catch and kill it. The cutting it up and handing it out was an after thought and more of a means of getting the carcass off the boat.
IMO we are part of nature and in nature animals kill other animals for food. I see the American Indians as naturalists and they killed animals for food too. So I don't see killing something for food as being incongruent with being a naturalist. As for the legality, I'm not one who believes all laws are just. I think things like deep sea drilling are legal b/c of misplaced energy policies and strong lobbies. I don't see the same in hunting. I think in general it is illegal to hunt species that are near extinction (at least in the US). So, balance and common sense are more generally reflected in those laws.
Sharks have been overfished for a while now. If there are any size/catch limit regulations in place for sharks in Florida it's news to me. There needs to be.
I must be a heartless SOB then. If this shark was that size and had apparently lived as long as it had to attain that size, it apparently wasn't smart enough not to bite onto the hook those men tossed in the water. Darwinsim at work...survival of the fittest.
Well I guess we should destroy every other creature on the planet since we're smarter than they are. We have to use our brains to harvest fish responsibly. Not wait around for them to suddenly become smart enough to figure out what a hook is. I've seen instances where old, large fish learned to avoid hooks but for the most part fish just can't do that. Especially not sharks.
Catch and release would have created the same magnificent memory! We did that on a trip going after yellow-fin and mahi-mahi...hooked a Marlin, battled, brought it close to the boat, and simply cut the lead very close to the hook using long poll and snips....it simply swam off. (and several big fish have simply broke the lead during the battle so them swimming off with hook and lead is not uncommon) Eating the Tuna and Mahi-Mahi was far better and the memory of battling the Marlin was joy in and of it self.
