I agree with Bill... it's a shame it was killed in a sport tournament. Was the meat at least steaked out and saved? I have nothing against fishers who fish legally for food, but have a major problem with "sport" fishing where animals are killed to fulfill egos.
With that said, I'm glad most of the makos we see out here are small (3-5')... just filmed several of them yesterday 12 miles off Catalina's coast. There's talk of several very large makos (13-14') here off our East End. When I was diving with the marine artist Wyland, he said a 14' shark swam past us as I was busy with my eye glued to the viewfinder. After I posted this, I ran into one of our local legendary divers (Jon Council) who said he once encountered an 18+ ft mako doing a shark dive off Catalina in 1994. He has seen smaller ones (13-16 ft) on several occasionals while spearfishing.
As for "tournaments," I hope no "sport" fishers or hunters object when my little green friends from the Planet Xanadu return to Earth in 2013. They told me they were returning to their planet to draft some rules regarding the sport hunting of humans, and perfect the weapons to use in those hunts. Fortunately, they'll only be going after a limited target of the human population. Whew!
