The technicality is that he ate it.
Florida fisherman Joey Polk caught an 805-pound mako shark earlier this month, apparently setting a new Land-Based Shark Fishing Association record for the largest mako. Except that he didn’t, because he celebrated his victory by grilling and eating the 11-foot monster with his buddies.
It’s not illegal, but eating a shark is a no-no under ILSFA rules.
“As of January 1st of 2012, the ILSFA will no longer promote or accept record applications for sharks not released,” the association’s website says.
Polk says he would have released the shark, but “he was too worn out to swim.”
The current record holder, Earnie Polk, happens to be Joey’s cousin. He caught (and ate) his 725-pound mako back in 2009, before the rule went into effect.
“No meat went to waste. Rednecks all over the county is grilling right now,” Earnie told the ILFSA after he set his record.
As for Joey, says he doesn’t care about the record. He just wants to catch big-ass sharks.
“That’s why we decided to keep him. We don’t do it for the money, for the publicity, just to catch the fish,” he told the New York Daily News.
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Comments
“He ate the shark.” And I bet it was delicious.
Come on hippie, what do you mean”frowned up” by the ILSFA . Not frowned upon, but rather against the rules to count towards a record. He fed the neighbors, and fed them well. Good for him, that is the way communities once worked. Catch and Release is fine, but if you are going to feed the village/county more power to you. He certainly didn’t “owe it to the fish” to release it. That beautiful shark had a good life, and obviously ate other fish in the ocean for years.
Circle of life baby. Better to get Shark from the fisherman rather than the SuperMarket.
He did say that the shark was too worn out from the fight to be able to swim… if he had released the animal it may have died anyway. Most sharks (I admit that I do not know if this applies to Mako sharks) breath by ‘Ram Ventilation’ and must keep moving so that the water continuously passes over their gills. If the shark was unable to swim due to exhaustion, it could drown.