Another one gone

[RoadRacer1978]

Just saw this. Another amazing creature gone from the sea

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071015/..._monster_shark

DESTIN, Fla. - Six friends went to a fishing tournament looking to catch some grouper. They caught an 844-pound shark instead.
The fight by Adlee Bruner and friends to pull the 11-foot mako shark onto the boat from the Gulf of Mexico took more than an hour on Saturday. But when they made it back to land, it was a record for the decades-old Destin Fishing Rodeo.
"It was tense," Bruner, 47, said about the fight to land the shark, which has a mouthful of huge, fearsome teeth. "I've fished for 40 years. I've never see one that big."
Bruner and his fishing buddies were on a 52-foot charter boat with Capt. Robert Hill, about 70 miles southwest of this beach city in the Florida Panhandle.
The fishermen first noticed the big mako because it kept eating grouper and scamp they had hooked.
"It was like 'Jaws,'" Hill said.
Hill hooked a two-foot amberine on as bait and tossed it out. The shark eventually hit it.
After the long fight, the shark was gaffed and eventually gave up after its tail was roped. But even then, the men could not get the big shark in the boat. They tied it to the stern with three ropes and made the four-hour trip back to land.
The shark was hoisted at the rodeo before a big crowd. It tipped the scale at 844.4 pounds.
After it was gutted, the mako still weighed 638 pounds, breaking the tournament's previous shark division record by 338 pounds.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/2...hxFSJnR lrw--

[DevilDiver]

Myth: Sharks are hungry, man eaters looking for any chance to attack.

Fact: Sharks have no desire to eat humans. Most of the "attacks" on humans are a mistake, which is why there are so many more bites than fatalities. There are around 350 species of sharks but white, tiger and bull sharks are the species responsible for the majority of all attacks.

Myth: Sharks are all the same.

Fact: The reality is just the opposite. Shark species are very different in size, appearance, habitat, diet and behavior. The typical "Jaws" vision is far from the norm.

Myth: All sharks are voracious predators.

Fact: Whale sharks (the largest shark species), basking and megamouth sharks are all filter feeders that consume a diet primarily of phytoplankton and krill.

Myth: Sharks are useless and we would be better off without them.

Fact: Sharks are important to the health of ocean ecosystems. As the top predators, sharks keep the food web in balance.

[DivingsInMyBlood]

Grab your spear guns boys and girls, lets go hunting for some fishermen. (this ones for you jahjah) yes i have a somewhat twisted sense of humor and no i wouldnt shoot someone with a speargun and i dont make threats. I dont think we should be eating predators who are on top of their food chain. Sorry i dont have a smiley for blowing you a kiss.

[fire diver]

Originally Posted by DivingsInMyBlood

Grab your spear guns boys and girls, lets go hunting for some fishermen.

We could at least get some more wrecks on the bottom, next to the established wrecks.

[diverdad]

Originally Posted by DivingsInMyBlood

Grab your spear guns boys and girls, lets go hunting for some fishermen.

That would be inhumane, what we need are some really big guns.

[JahJahwarrior]

What is so bad about these guys catching one shark? I understand the upset about fishing with drag nets, and throwing away bycatch, and with spearfishing protected animals, and people who fish and fish and fish just to kill animals, but it sounds like these two caught one animal, the story of a lifetime for them.

Are you gonna go ape-wild on Hemingway's character in The Old Man and the Sea ?

I mean, I'm not exactly happy that another animal died, but I'm not going to threaten them with spears or guns or go cry or anything.

[tonysmjc]

forget that Im going to protect em

and if I get lucky maybe they will give me a few mako Steaks mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Thems Goood Eats

Climb down off your high horses before you fall off and break your necks

They caught a fish killed it and with any luck ate it

Thats what we do we are preditiors we have special teeth for ripping and chewing flesh . As for me I like my Flesh chared exterior, rare inside , Raws good too with some fresh wasabi and a little soy or tazziki

Its not that I dont respect your right to hug trees Its just that talking like some did above gets me Poed . They have the right they broke no laws . Dont like fishing , hunting Tough

They didnt come post there conquest here you went a got it and brought it back to a forum where u would get the rightious indignation post that u wanted . Why?

[DivingsInMyBlood]

Its just my view on things, i personally dont think we should be going around taking big sharks out of the water. Tonysmjc i dont think im on my high horse, i respect your view on this issue, we all have our own take on things. I just dont like the idea with alot of the shark numbers dropping now.

[tonysmjc]

Taking the fish any fish is a personal choice ,and on some level I agree with u abouth taking a large specimen . But it want my fish or yours it was theirs

I dont agree with some of the comments tossed around about sinking his boat for a wreck or spearing them or the high minded stuff

These are discussion boards siscussion is good . voicing concern is also good .
Bashing on a guy for simply doing something u dont agree with but is totally his right to do well thats just wrong

And Remember im a card carrying menmber of PETA
People Eating Tasty Animals (because they tast good)

[JahJahwarrior]

Divingsinmyblood--what are your views then on taking small sharks out of the water? Eventually, you'll probably have to argue that we shouldn't take any sharks out of the water.

Fundamentally, I somewhat agree, we shouldn't overfish by any means. However, fish and animals are not nearly on the same "level" as humans, just as buildings and cars aren't. So I don't have a problem with fish dying, as long as they aren't being killed just for fun. I think that any fish caught should be eaten, unless it's poisonous. I also don't have a problem with buldings beign demolished, as long as it has a purpose. Setting fires for fun is wrong, just like drag net fishing is wrong. But it's not wrong for me to demolish a house to build a new one, just like it's not fundamentally wrong for this man to catch the fish. (even if it's not the best use of his time )


At any rate, I think you need to be really careful with threats like "lets go hunting for some fisherman." I understand it was probably in jest, but it can be hard to tell. It would be wise of you to amend your post with something like
[humor] and [/humor]
or
at the end of your threat.
In order to affect the greatest change, you should not threaten people with a speargun. Perhaps you should write a letter to the organization that was having the tournament (wasn't it a tournament for game fish?) or if I'm wrong on that, the fishing boat crew or something, whatever it was, whomever was in charge, etc, and let them know that while it's cool that these guy shad fun, you would have rathered to have seen a news story documenting the catch and then the subsequent release of the animal, or something to that nature.

Think of wedges, they get you to a height gradually. You cannot start by calling for physical harm to a person, you ought to start small and move people over to your side over time, it works much better than extreme demands and threats.

Again, it was probably all in jest, and I suggest you amend your post to accurately reflect your intentions, or ask a moderator to move this entire thread to "fun and games" where humor is more easily appreciated. Until you do something, you will have people who take what you said at face value (I know becuase I say a whole tonne of stupid things all the time and have to apologize and amend posts) and get upset with you, when otherwise they might have agreed with you.