Generally, they don’t. But they can go over 1000 pounds if allowed to grow that big. Last I heard, the rod and reel record was 1069 pounds for a mako. You hear about the giant ones, because they are the ones that give you “bragging rights”. Still, I prefer catch and release. And no, I’m not a shark fisherman. The few sharks I’ve caught were small young ones (not even makoes), and I turned them loose (sand sharks).
Incidentally, the sharks I have killed were indeed left to rot, but that’s a part of the processsing… well… process. In fact, it is the process. What do you do, cook it?
…Americans :rolleyes:
This is factually correct, for the United States at least.
Even in Florida, which has far and away the most shark attacks (not only in the US, but in the world), the number of shark attacks (fatal and non-fatal) only exceeds the number of lightning **fatalities[/b by about 10%, and the number of lightning fatalities in Florida exceeds the number of shark attack fatalities by a factor of 50.
In the period 1959-2003, there were 740 confirmed shark attacks in US waters, of which 466 occurred in Florida. That’s fewer than 20 attacks per year in a nation where millions of people use the ocean for recreation. And of those 740 attacks, only 22, or about 3%, resulted in fatalities. Over the past half-century there has been, on average, less than one shark-attack fatality in US waters every two years.
Pardon me, but the shark attacks that inspired Jaws took place in New Jersey.
Aww. Nova Scotia.
Is it weird that this made me homesick for my home province?
“Jaws Town” was based on Long Island. The attacks in the movie were “borrowed” from the incidents in New Jersey, which is just about stone’s throw away. There are Whites “patrolling” Long Island. To a traveller like a Great White, the distance is nothing; they travel from California to Hawaii and back at will.
I have a cottage about 30 miles south of Halifax. 5 years ago i was out in my tiny row boat about 30 meters from shore just taking it easy. Every few mintues i peek over my shoulder to make sure im going in right direction. On one of these peeks i see a dorsel fin slowing crossing in front of my boat about 10 meters in front on me. I’d been out in my boat a fair bit over the years and had never seen anything other then jelly fish on my outings. I couldnt see anything other then the fin so i had no idea how big it was. As i frantically turned my boat around and headed back to my beach the fin slid back under the surface and i never saw it again. In hindsight im sure it was just a dolphin or porpose or something but at the time all i could think of was how i was about to be the first shark attack vicitim in Nova Scotia.
You can cook them. Rich people pay a lot for shark fin soup. I just turned them loose. We Americans are coming over to the idea that if you kill it, use it. Eat it, have it mounted on your wall, put it to some use. If you don’t mean to keep it, release it so it can live and breed (keeping the supply up) or at least will give another fisherman a chance to enjoy the same thrill you got. Fishing and hunting are similar in that you are hoping to “catch” something. Would you leave rotted deer carcasses all over the place?
I think we’re using different definitions of “based on”.
I once went fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Texas on one of those tourists boats, where you have the electric powered reels, and the boats all zip around chasing after the fish using sonar. I was fishing off the side of the boat (I’m a landlubber, so no idea if it was port or starboard), when everyone (well, almost everyone) in the area of the stern started running towards the bow of the boat. Naturally, I had to walk to the stern to see what all the commotion was about. One of the guys had managed to land about a six foot long black tip shark. He and some of the deckhands were able to wrestle it onto the stern, and then they proceeded to beat the thing to death with tire irons! Meanwhile, it’s thrashing about in agony, and stuff’s flying all over the place from it’s flailing and people trying to get out of the way. It struck me as such an ignoble way for the shark to lose it’s life. Not fighting for it’s life at the end of line, or being ripped to shreds by other sharks, but by being clubbed to death by a bunch of drunken rednecks.
If I had hooked one, I’d have wrestled with it until I got it almost onto the stern. Then I would have cut the line and let him go.
I believe UselessGit is being deliberately obtuse there. He is talking about eating the shark, but Icelanders like to leave their [IIRC, poisonous] shark meat hanging for a few months until it becomes rotten and apparently safer to eat. It’s reputedly a “man thing,” and women won’t kiss men who eat it for a few days afterwards. Frankly, it sounds utterly revolting.