Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Florida - targeting protected Species?


Read this.
These are the rules governing fishing for Elasmobranchs in Florida. There is a list of protected species that may neither be harvested nor landed but must instead be immediately returned to the water free, alive, and unharmed, see under Definitions, (3).  
Here are some additional recommendations for catch-and-release fishing that latest since 2014 have been shown to be woefully inadequate for Great Hammerheads that are likely to die even when they appear to swim away in seemingly good shape - especially when they are caught from land where dragging them ashore requires particularly brutal handling.
And these are the regs for the protected Goliath Grouper.

So how about the picture at the top.
Or this one

I got this 13'6 hammer with a few friends of mine a couple of nights ago. Many more to come!

Or this one

I hate these things so freaking much

Yes these pics would be the dude from that recent video.
Like those morons targeting Sawfish, he and his friends are deliberately targeting protected species. This is his Instagram account - pictures here, here and here, more endangered and protected GHH e.g. here and here, total abomination here. Here are more horrible pictures. And here is his Facebook account.

And the FWC that should be enforcing the law?
I know for a fact that they've been alerted to the shenanigans, and this several times - and so far, nada de nada, zilch, bubkes!
Like I asked back then, is this because a) this is legal - and then the law or its interpretation are failing their purpose and need to be amended; or b) it is illegal but the FWC doesn't give a shit - and then those people need to be held accountable.

So what is it gonna be.
Are you Shark folks down there gonna continue to play at conservation by going out and molesting some more Lemons and Tigers - or are you finally going to actually do something and actually save a few endangered animals by getting off your arses and having the FWC put an end to the appalling shenanigans by that dude and his friends?
And since we're at it: is Mote still complicit in this shit?

The world is watching!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm off my arse here in Jupiter and trying to address the issue of landbased shark fishing and trying to make a difference!