750 pound Mako gaffed and killed

[walke121]

If it is true that most commercial fisheries are rebounding, that is good news. Is that worldwide, or just in the United States? The last I read on the subject was this article in Science (November 2006), which I'm sure you're familiar with, that predicted a "collapse" in global fisheries:

Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services -- Worm et al. 314 (5800): 787 -- Science

I was just saying that the current state of US fisheries compared to the state they were in 20 years ago is much better. Then again this is a general statement as some fisheries are doing really well while others are rebounding more slowly.

 

[mike_s]

OK I really did not want to do this, but after reading the entire thread over, I guess I will post a second hand update.
I dove this weekend with two people who know the Fishermen who killed the Mako.

I am told that they have the whole event on tape, cell phone, film, whatever, and it does show them catching the shark by hook and line with a piece of swordfish hacked off of the carcass of the dead sword and getting her close enough to gaff.

Video below

Looks to me that the swordfish head was tied to a big black nylon rope.

However, If you watch closely in the video, you can see one of them has a rod with a line on it in the water.... (25 seconds in the video).

at 33 seconds in the video, it appears that maybe they are throwing a chunk in that might be attached to that line. (too far out of pic to verify for sure).

at 99 seconds, it appears that "line" with the fish chunks they were throwing were attached to a Gaff and not a fishing pole.

at 1:10 one of the guys says "I've got it on the line". not sure if a hook was involved, but they have the shark on a piece of bait on a line tied to a gaff.


The quote by one of the fishermen "We might as well Gaff this thing, someone is dying today" doesn't make them look like they were doing it as sporting fishermen though.

Then they should post it up and remove any suspicion.

here is the video, from a local news cast.

If you want to watch a bigger version of it, click on the video. It's in HD so they have a full screen version.




This link here also has a video. but I couldn't get it to play. But the initial shot of the video that is shown on the screen looks like to me you can see a line of monofilament running from the boat down towards the shark. maybe I'm wrong...

see Video

can anyone else get this video to work and can comment? they might be blocking it where I work.



Still to me, it seems like they were trying to "bait in the fish" so that they could gaff it. Maybe since they got it to bite a hook just off the boat and they could pull it in, that makes it legal. But baiting something like that just so you can gaff it and kill it doesn't really seem sporting to me as catching it normally.

just my 2 cents worth.

 

[deepstops]

Video below

Looks to me that the swordfish head was tied to a big black nylon rope.
However, If you watch closely in the video, you can see one of them has a rod with a line on it in the water.... (25 seconds in the video).
at 33 seconds in the video, it appears that maybe they are throwing a chunk in that might be attached to that line. (too far out of pic to verify for sure).
at 99 seconds, it appears that "line" with the fish chunks they were throwing were attached to a Gaff and not a fishing pole.
at 1:10 one of the guys says "I've got it on the line". not sure if a hook was involved, but they have the shark on a piece of bait on a line tied to a gaff.
The quote by one of the fishermen "We might as well Gaff this thing, someone is dying today" doesn't make them look like they were doing it as sporting fishermen though.

here is the video, from a local news cast.

If you want to watch a bigger version of it, click on the video. It's in HD so they have a full screen version.



This link here also has a video. but I couldn't get it to play. But the initial shot of the video that is shown on the screen looks like to me you can see a line of monofilament running from the boat down towards the shark. maybe I'm wrong...
see Video
can anyone else get this video to work and can comment? they might be blocking it where I work.

Still to me, it seems like they were trying to "bait in the fish" so that they could gaff it. Maybe since they got it to bite a hook just off the boat and they could pull it in, that makes it legal. But baiting something like that just so you can gaff it and kill it doesn't really seem sporting to me as catching it normally.
just my 2 cents worth.

So it's possible to catch a green 750 lb. mako on a little spinning rod??

My perception of what you're seeing: They rigged the spinning rod with a treble hook to snag the swordfish carcass to get it close to the boat. That was the only use of the rod and reel.

 

[Tom Winters]

I guess no one is going to start a Mako recipe thread then?

 

[mike_s]

So it's possible to catch a green 750 lb. mako on a little spinning rod??

yeah... you're right.


that rod was a little wimpy for a 40 pound tuna, much less a 750 pound shark.

My perception of what you're seeing: They rigged the spinning rod with a treble hook to snag the swordfish carcass to get it close to the boat. That was the only use of the rod and reel.

well from the video I saw, they didn't appear to be catching it normally.

It clearly looks to me that their intention was to get it closer to the boat so they could gaff it. (They even said they planned on doing that in the interview as I quoted one of them).


It even looks like in one of the shots that they had a chunk of fish on a line tied to the gaff, as I pointed out in the previous post.

like I said before, not very sporting.

 

[Zieg]

But what about the second gunman?

 

[ScubaSteve]

But what about the second gunman?

Was the boat called "The Grassy Knoll"?

 

[ONESPEED]

Did Zapruder film the Mako catch?

 

[adurso]

The Warren Commission will be looking in to this event...

 

[ScubaSteve]

The Warren Commission will be looking in to this event...

They already are . In fact, they are VERY closely inspecting the knoll as we speak