Nurse Shark found in Miami

[NJ to FLA]

A 6' female nurse shark was found in the street in Miami today (5th St and NW 4th Ave). Two men caught it off the Key Biscayne yesterday and tried to sell it to Garcia's Fish Market for $10 but a worker said he doesn't take fish off the street. The men (riding bicycles) took it across the street and threw it in the bushes. Then someone else dragged it into the middle of the street.

How sad. I just saw this on the news and I can't find anything online about it right now. FWC is involved so they may be posting something soon.

 

[smellzlikefish]

Unfortunately, I don't think the perpetrator will get much more than a littering charge since catching nurse sharks is legal.

 

[mike_s]

Video story. shows the shark

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the guys who caught it, actually took it on a city train to the fish market. (I'm not kidding)

can you imagine being on a train and seeing two guys carry a shark onto the train like nothing is happening?

 

[NJ to FLA]

4.5' is more reasonable..I didn't think it was 6'. Also, the channel 10 news has interviewed people from Garcia's as well.. I'm sure they stopped at every local fish market and everyone turned them down as this act of violence (or not so violent, yet slowly torturous) is condemned..(generally speaking).

 

[pro99line]

I'm happy to hear they are talking about possible criminal charges. This is just wrong.

 

[mike_s]

what can they charge them with?

catching a nurse shark is legal.


maybe they can charge them with cruelty to animals for not putting it out of its misery in a timely manner, but I think they'd have a hard time doing that as fish die all the time after being removed from the ocean.

 

[Beatlejuice]

Dead shark left in Miami street after failed sale
From Associated Press
July 22, 2009 8:49 AM EDT

MIAMI - The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of a downtown Miami street after two men tried to sell it to several fish markets.

The men apparently carried the five or six-foot-long fish around on the city's Metromover downtown train, prompting calls to police.

News footage Tuesday night showed the dead animal in the street with police officers and cruisers nearby. Two stations reported that a pair of men had tried to sell the animal to at least three fish markets for around $10.

Rob Orta, an employee at Casablanca Fish Market, told television station WSVN that the men offered his business the shark.

"But we don't buy sharks off the street," Orta told the station.

Wildlife officials later determined the animal was a nurse shark. The case could result in misdemeanor charges of improper killing and disposal of an animal and selling a shark without a license.

One resident of the area where the shark was dumped said he didn't know what was going on at first.

"It was a relief that it was a shark," said Keith Smith. "When I first saw it, I thought it was a body because of all the shootings that have been going on."