Are Florida Shark Fisherman Becoming Extinct? Give a few hysterical activists or environmental groups of extremists (say Mote Marine Laboratory, Peta or Green Peace) an emotionally charged cause like Save the Sharks from Over Fishing and they’ll twist it into a worldwide tidal wave of unnatural disaster or animal injustice. The Shark fisherman beware! In those environmentally squinted eyes, you are depleting the seas of its sharks. Don’t you understand this top-of-the-food-chain predator is really Bambi, the deer of the sea? Sharks are “misunderstood”, the environmentalists claim. A chance of a shark attack is less than a lightning strike. Sharks only eat enough to survive and reproduce very slowly. Their future existence is threatened by your senseless slaughter, you testosterone laden macho men. Read the propaganda papering the walls of their aquarium exhibits. They claim millions of tons of sharks are killed daily by shark fishing. Every day! Worldwide! (We wouldn’t inflate those catch totals, no.) In a few years sharks will be extinct! How many years have they been saying this? Have there been fewer shark attacks on surfers in Lucie County Florida (the shark bite capital)? Even the United States Congress believes their rhetoric. The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week exploits these predators (the sharks, not the environmentalists) as well. They reel in big bucks from advertising on each episode while running the disclaimer that more sharks die by theshark fisherman than do humans by the jaws of sharks. Little comfort to those who have been bitten. Did anyone see the ridiculous episode documenting the carnage by Bambi and his brethren on the adrift sailors after the USS Indianapolis sank? Remember George Burgess, Curator of the International Shark Attack File and a devoted environmentalist, attempting to convince several of those surviving old heros that Bambi of the sea only fed on the dead! I remember several of the eyewitnesses claiming they heard piercing screams as they watched their fellow ship mates sink below the surface. Shame on you, Burgess. Take your facts from a former Florida shark fisherman: sharks are the perfect predators – natural killers that hunt alone or in packs, some schools numbering into the thousands. Most of the 300 species are worldwide and migratory. They follow their food source. They eat until they vomit then eat some more, unlike those pet sharks one views at public aquariums. And they are very efficient at reproduction – many species, like the tiger and hammerhead birth up to one hundred newborn, which they will also eat. Sharks have evolved very little since the dinosaur – a testimonial to their ability to adapt – and they are savage predators. All this is well documented by the shark hunter in ancient times through artifacts, native cave paintings, 16 century ships logs and literature. And another thing: I’d like to meet the environmentalist who has counted all those sharks swimming, moving and migrating around the world’s vast oceans to support his claims of shark impending extinction. I’ve got news for you, all those Bambi fish-sharks don’t die from cancer and would probably survive a nuclear holocaust! One must wonder about the credibility of those hysterical environmental activists and their propaganda. If unchallenged by researchers and shark hunters like myself, we will become the species that becomes extinct. Think about it. Is your beach safe? If your boat sinks or your jet ski runs out of fuel or maybe your scuba tanks runs out of air, you better hope the Coast Guard finds you before Bambi does! End of Story.
Captain Bill – Sharkman