750 pound Mako gaffed and killed

[letterboy]

Exactly!! I have no problem with them fishing for them legally..My issue is how they do it. I think there is bigger issues there tho. I think foreign countries who long line really do a lot more damage than a few yahoos we have here. But it impacts us.

So hook and line fishing for sharks is ok, as long as they are the proper size..

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

So hook and line fishing for sharks is ok, as long as they are the proper size..

Well its legal.. I think it could be better managed, but what could'nt.

 

[Chugwhump]

I hope that my one and only post on this subject is this:

I would also have preferred that the guys had left this shark alone.
This is just my opinion as I am about an ignoramous about how well Mako's are doing in the ocean.

While I do not personally know the group of fishermen, I know someone who does.
I spoke with my friend about the catch of the shark.
He was not on the boat.
He would have preferred to see this big momma be left alone.

The meat is or was completely divvied up between the fishermen and then onto their friends.
This is the gospel from the fishermen as told to my friend.

This is all I have to report, second hand information as it is.

Chug

 

[Ana]

I work for the government I enforce laws and I do program evaluation.

I work for the government I hunt mines, my husband works for the government too. One of my sons works for the federal government and is a Broward Sheriff too.
Not sure what is the relevance but oh well.

Sadly, I can tell you from personal experience that we have lots of laws that are just plain stupid. Just because something is legal does not mean it is the right thing to do.

That is why people take the time and effort to change laws, but while a law is in effect you can't stop anyone from doing something legal.

The problem is the average voter is either poorly informed and/or lacks critical thinking skills and/or lakcs the willingness to use them and/or is so fixated on personal isses that they do not vote in a manner that supports the larger public interest. In short, the average voter is not very responsible and fails to elect responsible legislators and hold themn accountable for the laws they pass.

Consider the recent banking and housing market disasters - all of what was done was 100% legal but housing and banking industry experts all addmitted it was an incredibly bad idea well before the crashes and knew the and those crashes were inevitable. But the practice continued as right up until the crash lots of people were making money hand over fist (and then the government bails the banks who lost money out to keep the entire economy from tanking). It was all about money, not about what was right with no regard to driving the economy in the ditch at great personal and financial cost to the average tax payer.

Relevance?
legality, idiocy, ethics or something to do mako sharks was the subject.

So if you follow the "it's legal therefore it must be ok" line of thought then you will clearly have no problems with fishermen taking slow growing, long lived and slow to reproduce apex predators like the Mako shark.

I follow the "it's legal therefore people can't be stopped or fined. Maybe I care enough about this and see what I can do to change the law. Or maybe I don't care enough" line of thought.

More recent research suggests makos grow much slower than previously thought, making them much more prone to overfishing than initially suggessted - meaning current legislation and management policies are seriosuly flawed. Studies also indicate that while population numbers are reasonably stable, the average size of Makos are declining. When you combine a decline in the age and size of individuals in a population that has a slow sexual maturation (4 years), a long gestation period (18 months) and relatively few young that are born, the logic is pretty clear that a sharp drop in population nunmbers is looming once the average age of the population falls below the age needed to at least replace the existing population numnbers (about 6 years minimum).

To make it worse, female makos are larger than males which means they are then more likely to be targeted by trophy fishermen. I am aware of no other sustainable wildlife management policy that would target prime breeding age females, except for short periods of time in cases where a given population has exploded in numbers and grossly exceeds the carrying capacity of tghe environment. In most cases, management polices seek to target males and protect breeding females as any other policy results in a drop in population.

sounds like you have collected some data on the subject. Are you doing things to change the law?

Consequently statements like this one and onespeed's tend to peg both my BS and Blissful Ignorance meters. Feel free to fish for makos all you want but please don't show up at the polls to vote as doing so just keeps the idiots who write legislation like this in office.

Well I don't know about all of onespeed's statements or any of your meters but why would you discourage people to vote? Do you really care about protecting sharks or just attacking people that don't have a problem with following some laws you disagree with?

 

[carriemak]

Thread hijack---Hey Ana, haven't seen you post in a while. How are you?---end hijack!

 

[Capt Scotty]

I don't disagree with shark fishing, just apply a little conservation. Catch and release if you are not going to eat your catch. Fishermen are not catching the "big fish" what where once here on the Florida coast 10 to 30 years ago. Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach has promoted catch and release of sailfish for sometime now, you don't see their boats pulling in and hanging sails on the "glory sign". They take pictures and have mounts made, why can we not promote the same for the big sharks?

SHARK-FREE MARINAS: THE MISSION

The Shark Free Marina Initiative has a singular purpose, to reduce worldwide shark mortality. We encourage shark conservation at sport fishing and resort marinas by prohibiting the landing of any shark at the participating marina.

It is our goal to work with, not against, the recreational and commercial fishing community. As shark populations are decimated on a global scale we as a species are obligated to pay attention and reduce our wasteful destruction of an incredibly important resource. The second phase of this initiative will be to partner with shark tournament organizers for sustainable and eco sanctioned events.

 

[vtownmike]

I personally don't care. I know a lot of people on here are against that. I am on the ocean around 150 days a year and I actually know what is out there. I see makos all along the Atlantic coast and there are plenty out there. Killing a few a year isn't going to make them extinct. I bet almost everyone griping about this eats shrimp with a 90-95% bycatch rate. No one is complaining about all the thousands to tens of thousand juvenile fish that are killed each tow not to mention that most of the shrimp is imported from countries that kill and eat turtles. People only support a cause when it is convenient for them. As for the mercury I have had 2 mercury blood tests in the past 5 years and I am fine.

Hey man no point in arguing with these people on here..... and they did not waste it, they gave it to 20 of their friends. If they killed it for sport it would be a different story.

 

[Scott L]

The fisherman will be on the wrong side of history before too long. We all know that. I do not see much relevance in much of DA's post about civic duty either but I believe his specific arguments for not killing the animal will stand the test of time. Back to the tangent argument I wish voters would spend more time before making their decisions as I watch gold skyrocket and the dollar drop faster than an overweighted resort diver. Lol...

 

[ONESPEED]

The fisherman will be on the wrong side of history before too long. We all know that.

Commercial fisherman indiscriminately killing anything that crosses their path will be the ones on the wrong side of history, a bunch of guys who caught a big mako, fed their family and friends, and will probably never again catch a mako are hardly the problem. All you alarmists need to shift your focus to the real problem rather than myopically attacking an activity you personally don't like. What did you all eat for dinner tonight, and where did it come from? Just a little "food for thought"........

 

[Scott L]

Commercial fisherman indiscriminately killing anything that crosses their path will be the ones on the wrong side of history, a bunch of guys who caught a big mako, fed their family and friends, and will probably never again catch a mako are hardly the problem. All you alarmists need to shift your focus to the real problem rather than myopically attacking an activity you personally don't like. What did you all eat for dinner tonight, and where did it come from? Think about that....

I am a hunter just like you but I would prefer that the fish would be swimming in the gulfstream right now as opposed to sitting in someone's freezer. It's as simple as that...