Six fishermen in Australia caught an 870-pound tiger shark and somehow managed to pull it into their small boat, prompting the usual calls for them needing a bigger boat.
But the catch also ignited controversy.
The tiger shark was caught Sunday off the coast of Sydney by Dark Horse captain Paul Barning and his crew, as reported by Yahoo! News Australia, which stated that the catch “sparked furious debate” on the Port Hacking Game Fishing Club’s Facebook page.
Though they did nothing illegal, as Aussie fishermen are allowed to keep one tiger shark in their daily catch, they were criticized for killing a species of shark that is labeled internationally as “near threatened” by the IUCN Red List of endangered species.
Many online commenters were impressed with the size of the giant apex predator while others were saddened it was killed, with one calling it “selfish stupidity.”
Lawrence Chlebeck, a shark expert for the Humane Society International, is critical of those killing large sharks for sport with Australian scientists noting a 74 percent decrease in tiger sharks over the last 50 years.
“We need to recognize these magnificent species for what they are and do everything we can to make sure that they don’t fall further into decline,” Chlebeck told Yahoo! News Australia.
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New South Wales Game Fishing Association president Garry Chenoweth countered the argument, however.
“Our guys are not out there just to murder everything that’s in the water,” he told Yahoo! News Australia. “Those guys [in the photo] have taken just one fish.
“[Sport fishermen] don’t even rate on the 1 percent scale in terms of the impact on oceanic species…It’s really easy to defend [game fishing], but people don’t want to see the actual statistics. [People] just see a picture [of a shark being caught online] and want to lynch everybody up.”
The Daily Mail Australia stated that the fishermen fought the huge tiger shark for 45 minutes. It was unclear how they managed to get it into the boat.
The Leader reported that another large shark was caught and shown in an image (below) on the Port Hacking Game Fishing Club’s Facebook page, but that the page was not available, that the link might be broken or the page removed.
Among other comments on the post, according to Yahoo! News Australia:
“My daughter is 9; I just showed her the picture, as we caught a small mako a few weeks ago, and she said she thinks you caught a JAWS!”
“How did you get that on the boat without destroying it? Would’ve been kicking very hard.”
“How did you not get chomped?”
Good questions, indeed.
Photos courtesy of Port Hacking Game Fishing Club.
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