Jupiter dive crew convicted of stealing fishing gear

[Jake 10]

Sharks are way overdue here for some form of management other than the typical social and legacy media parrot bashing that all sharks should be protected. Guys won't even dive the middle grounds in the summer anymore it's so bad out there. You don't even need to be fishing.

Where is here? Gulf of Mexico ?

 

[CuzzA]

Where is here? Gulf of Mexico ?

All of Florida.

 

[johndiver999]

I hate it when people exploit sharks for personal gain, especially the shark feeders. We should be happy that the local population is strong enough to support a commercial harvest. It would be unfortunate if the situation were otherwise.

 

[scubadada]

Sharks are way overdue here for some form of management other than the typical social and legacy media parrot bashing that all sharks should be protected. Guys won't even dive the middle grounds in the summer anymore it's so bad out there. You don't even need to be fishing.

The signal that shark management is required in the middle grounds is that you are not able to hunt there now due to Increased shark activity?

What do you think was the initial cause(s) of the increase in shark activity? How do you see shark management making a positive contribution to the current situation? I, perhaps inaccurately, infer that you are talking about a decrease in the number of sharks in this area.

 

[SlugLife]

reading the article on the miami herald, this seems more they are getting the book thrown at them not for taking out the long line, but for the evidence tampering getting rid of the buoy and lines after a FWC official told them to leave everything at the dock.

Right, it sounds like it was deliberate theft, and not someone merely mistaken. Nothing they did was genuine altruism, instead it was a deliberate theft disguised as altruism.

Midwestern tourists on a dive charter boat pulled in 3 miles of (marked) longline for 3 hours??

The world is full of morons.

A local dive-charter in my area, along with a bunch of his patsys decided to send my friend a bunch of angry messages on Facebook, when he posted a video of us picking up treasure from our local lake. "Why are you picking up treasure, but not trash!" Which is funny because:

1. He's charging $50+ per person to people on his dive-charter to pick up trash.
2. I know the areas they dive, and even if they pick up some trash, there's still a LOT they don't touch.
3. Picking up trash isn't interesting video-content, so they don't really know whether we pick up trash or not.

I'm pretty sure he was just being a territorial jerk, as if he owns the spots the party boats visit.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

I guess that I can see that there is some level of merit to both sides of this discussion........but it does not change my personal extreme sadness in seeing and knowing that literally tens of thousands of marine mammals and amphibians (turtles) are caught annually and basically drowned to death as by-catches when utilizing these types of indiscriminate fisheries.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

The signal that shark management is required in the middle grounds is that you are not able to hunt there now due to Increased shark activity?

What do you think was the initial cause(s) of the increase in shark activity? How do you see shark management making a positive contribution to the current situation? I, perhaps inaccurately, infer that you are talking about a decrease in the number of sharks in this area.

From the record, CuzzA seems unable to hunt there without zapping himself and his dive buddy when one little gray shark (can't tell what exactly it is in this footage; doesn't look chunky enough for a bull) gets within 50 feet:


On the topic ... the news reports contained a bunch of info I wasn't previously aware of; seeing those details I'm not shocked at the verdict. Trying to hide evidence, not following directives from law enforcement to preserve evidence, and lying to law enforcement tends to go over poorly in court and it's a good way to get hit with the book. I know John and Tanner and have been out on the boat with them before, but that version of events really does read like an open and shut case of "**** around and find out."

Some second- and third-hand background details, which to be perfectly clear do not excuse any party's actions: the commercial shark fisherman whose gear was trashed as I recall is registered out of Port Orange. This was several months after the late Patrick Price, a sportfishing captain based out of Stuart, started up a Facebook group called "Let's Tax the Tax Man" to drum up complaints about shark depredation (they have since bowdlerized the name to "Sportsmen Fighting For Marine Balance," a move that didn't please the commercial folks, to look nicer on letters to agencies). The Port Orange-based commercial shark fisherman posted on that group that he was going to go down to Jupiter and fish; the group members egged him on to fish around the shark diving boats. A couple boats in the days prior reported instances of longlines being set near them while they had divers in the water, possibly within 100 yards. The Port Orange-based commercial shark fisherman was also posting photos of his catch with captions like "Bringin the pain!" that included a lot of sandbar sharks, which can only be retained if a commercial fisherman has a specific permit from NMFS. It's not exactly easy to find out whether a boat or fisherman has that permit, at least if you're a member of the public possessing a beginning familiarity with the records systems (I had advice from a shark researcher and it wasn't exactly clear; in the end I believe it was determined the boat in question had the correct permit).



All that said, messing with legal commercial fishing gear is an extremely stupid move on multiple levels; if you suspect something illegal is going on you meticulously document that stuff (in general for FWC to do anything it's like the old "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" game show - you have to provide them with the loot, the warrant, and the crook), report it, and don't play Sea Shepherd games. That vigilante stunt was a kick in the nads for the other Jupiter shark dive operators and they were and are not happy about it.

 

[CuzzA]

From the record, CuzzA seems unable to hunt there without zapping himself and his dive buddy when one little gray shark (can't tell what exactly it is in this footage; doesn't look chunky enough for a bull) gets within 50 feet:


On the topic ... the news reports contained a bunch of info I wasn't previously aware of; seeing those details I'm not shocked at the verdict. Trying to hide evidence, not following directives from law enforcement to preserve evidence, and lying to law enforcement tends to go over poorly in court and it's a good way to get hit with the book. I know John and Tanner and have been out on the boat with them before, but that version of events really does read like an open and shut case of "**** around and find out."

Some second- and third-hand background details, which to be perfectly clear do not excuse any party's actions: the commercial shark fisherman whose gear was trashed as I recall is registered out of Port Orange. This was several months after the late Patrick Price, a sportfishing captain based out of Stuart, started up a Facebook group called "Let's Tax the Tax Man" to drum up complaints about shark depredation (they have since bowdlerized the name to "Sportsmen Fighting For Marine Balance," a move that didn't please the commercial folks, to look nicer on letters to agencies). The Port Orange-based commercial shark fisherman posted on that group that he was going to go down to Jupiter and fish; the group members egged him on to fish around the shark diving boats. A couple boats in the days prior reported instances of longlines being set near them while they had divers in the water, possibly within 100 yards. The Port Orange-based commercial shark fisherman was also posting photos of his catch with captions like "Bringin the pain!" that included a lot of sandbar sharks, which can only be retained if a commercial fisherman has a specific permit from NMFS. It's not exactly easy to find out whether a boat or fisherman has that permit, at least if you're a member of the public possessing a beginning familiarity with the records systems (I had advice from a shark researcher and it wasn't exactly clear; in the end I believe it was determined the boat in question had the correct permit).

View attachment 757532View attachment 757533View attachment 757534View attachment 757535View attachment 757536

All that said, messing with legal commercial fishing gear is an extremely stupid move on multiple levels; if you suspect something illegal is going on you meticulously document that stuff (in general for FWC to do anything it's like the old "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" game show - you have to provide them with the loot, the warrant, and the crook), report it, and don't play Sea Shepherd games. That vigilante stunt was a kick in the nads for the other Jupiter shark dive operators and they were and are not happy about it.

I love that video. That was a fun dive with DumpsterDiver.

So many Sandbars right now. Every dive within a couple minutes you have one or two hit you on a spot. This was Sunday where this Sandbar came in on me 3 times. I don't think I would have tolerated a 4th time.



Here's what to expect at the Middle Grounds today during the summer. Hell, they don't even care about the stringer. Y'all ain't diving it without a cattle group of divers.



Warmer water + abundance of red snapper + fewer commercial shark fishermen = lots of sharks.

 

[scubadada]

@CuzzA

Why so many sharks bothering hunters at middle grounds? Perhaps because there are so many hunters there, easy pickings?

 

[Eric802]

From the record, CuzzA seems unable to hunt there without zapping himself and his dive buddy when one little gray shark (can't tell what exactly it is in this footage; doesn't look chunky enough for a bull) gets within 50 feet:


On the topic ... the news reports contained a bunch of info I wasn't previously aware of; seeing those details I'm not shocked at the verdict. Trying to hide evidence, not following directives from law enforcement to preserve evidence, and lying to law enforcement tends to go over poorly in court and it's a good way to get hit with the book. I know John and Tanner and have been out on the boat with them before, but that version of events really does read like an open and shut case of "**** around and find out."

Some second- and third-hand background details, which to be perfectly clear do not excuse any party's actions: the commercial shark fisherman whose gear was trashed as I recall is registered out of Port Orange. This was several months after the late Patrick Price, a sportfishing captain based out of Stuart, started up a Facebook group called "Let's Tax the Tax Man" to drum up complaints about shark depredation (they have since bowdlerized the name to "Sportsmen Fighting For Marine Balance," a move that didn't please the commercial folks, to look nicer on letters to agencies). The Port Orange-based commercial shark fisherman posted on that group that he was going to go down to Jupiter and fish; the group members egged him on to fish around the shark diving boats. A couple boats in the days prior reported instances of longlines being set near them while they had divers in the water, possibly within 100 yards. The Port Orange-based commercial shark fisherman was also posting photos of his catch with captions like "Bringin the pain!" that included a lot of sandbar sharks, which can only be retained if a commercial fisherman has a specific permit from NMFS. It's not exactly easy to find out whether a boat or fisherman has that permit, at least if you're a member of the public possessing a beginning familiarity with the records systems (I had advice from a shark researcher and it wasn't exactly clear; in the end I believe it was determined the boat in question had the correct permit).

View attachment 757532View attachment 757533View attachment 757534View attachment 757535View attachment 757536

All that said, messing with legal commercial fishing gear is an extremely stupid move on multiple levels; if you suspect something illegal is going on you meticulously document that stuff (in general for FWC to do anything it's like the old "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" game show - you have to provide them with the loot, the warrant, and the crook), report it, and don't play Sea Shepherd games. That vigilante stunt was a kick in the nads for the other Jupiter shark dive operators and they were and are not happy about it.

Reminds me of the saying "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should". Yep, you can certainly go off and make a spectacle of the fact that you're hauling sharks out of the ocean and stacking them like cordwood, but geez, read the room...for every person who looks at that and says "Hell yeah, go get 'em", there are probably dozen who think "What an a$$hat". If you're in an industry doing something that (albeit legal) might be frowned upon by a majority of people, do you really want to give those people a reason to get riled up at you?