diver attacks great white...

[Mark Laboccetta]

Hey W! Although I think I’ve beaten this dead horse already I feel compelled to reply. A friend of mine a few years ago who works in a giant tuna farm needed some advice on where to get the best power-heads to provide the most effective solution to taking out these beautiful fast growing fish they harvest as quickly and humanely as possible. He experimented with some 38 caliber powerheads first, then 357’ and he asked me to help him find some custom shotgun shell power-heads. The former weren't doing the trick and all kinds of hell and commotion would break out when the job wasn’t done right when it came time to harvest. You can see the picture below. The shotgun cartridge power heads became the only apparent solution and he later even told me that they would used them to kill some of the pesky sharks that would try to eat the occasional dead tuna.

Anyway it was hearing this sort of thing that turned me off although he never told me about any Great Whites. This is the last comment I will make on it because, I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind since there are some very well informed people out there that know a lot about this subject and they probably know something I don’t know. Fctual experience or scientific information is always hard to argue with. Plus I think I've probably written enough on this by now and you know where I stand I just feel that herding wild schools of giant tunas in the ocean or long-lining for them (considering other by-catch like marlin and sea turtles are also at stake) is much worse than farm/pen raising them. I guess if you don’t eat beef you could also disagree there. As for their food source, I’m assuming they’re probably fed the same anchovies and sardines that Sea World feeds their dolphins and since Sea World never put Anchovies or Sardines on the Endangered Species list it can't be that bad

ps-Huan, thanks for the compliment on the gear yesterday! and any more information you may have on the above subject is always well received.

 

[Murat]

Mark,

Why you did not tell your friend best way to harvest tunas is letting few action hungry speros in pen like you and your friends rofl rofl

You might just loose big opportunity, may be this is not sporting but they are going to die anyway isn't it? rofl :ko

 

[Huan]

This is a little off topic but I will include it for interests sake here.
1 year or so ago I was in NC with the Tag-a-Giant group which tags and releases Bluefin.
I was asking some of the Scientists how they went about tagging tuna.
They said that in one case they were using Floy tags which are small tubing tags that go into the fish with a titanium dart.
They had to swim up to the fish and stick the tag in with a short pole.
After 1 or 2 fish were tagged in the pen this way the fish got smart and kept out of pole range.
someone then got the brighter idea (Scientists remember)that a longer pole would work better, same result after a couple of tags.
Hmmmm maybe a speargun would work ? same thing after 2 tags.
Moral of this story : Bluefin are smart fish and learn quick what they like and don't like.

 

[akrikel]

my vote is for IDIOT. firstly there is no way in hell anyone can argue he knows wot he's doing. he's neva done it before (hopefully!) and how do you second-judge a raging gws??? i vote idiot because human life takes preference over animal. by jumping into the water, he only endangered he's own life and caused another to jump in after to help. ie 2 human lives at risk when before there was none. secondly, wot type of company does not have contingency plans for such an obviously possible eventuality? and who was the smart-ass who thought a few bullets could stop a gws??? surely it will only die immediately if hit in the brain...if u miss, chaos ensures!!

 

[greendiver]

F******** Hell !!!!

 

[Mr. X]

...no tuna farm uses captive spawned tuna, the tuna are caught as juveniles and transported to the grow out areas.
In this way large amounts of juvenile fish are taken out of the ecosystem before they have had a chance to spawn.
This has led to the farcical situation as in the Mediterranean where huge quantities of juvenile fish are caught and not logged as being landed.
instead they are reclassified as being "Farmed" and are not subjected to the same quota system as "fished" tuna.
Secondly what do you feed tuna? As far as I am aware the tuna have to be fed frozen fish such as Sardines or Pilchards (in order for the oil content in the fish to be correct)which come from where?
answer commercial fisheries which catch huge amounts of these fish specifically for this type of grow-out operation.

Ever get the feeling that there are just too many people in the world? That population growth is too much for the environment, worldwide, to cope with? Our ability to damage the environment is also increasing. Our production of healthy, natural foods , replaced with inferior, de-natured, over-farmed and over processed foods :waterwork?

 

[Oldsarge]

O.K., now the GWS is listed . . . as threatened. That's Appendix II, not Appendix I.

Great white wins more protection

The sharks are targeted commercially
A system of permits will now control trade in great white shark products, a UN conference in Bangkok has decided.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) has put the shark on its so-called Appendix II list, which demands tighter regulations.

 

[TNdiver]

I know this is an old post, but i just found it. I think most people missed an important part of the story. Some idiots shot it while it was in the pin, after it was wounded, the diver got in to try to finish it off as quickly as he could and end the suffering. From what i read, he wasnt the one that wounded it to begin with. The DIVER, isnt the one that deserves to be bashed for killing the shark. The people who shot it to begin with do. He was just trying to end its suffering. Stupid, i think so, but done with the right cause in mind if you ask me. Despite what most people have said so far, it seems from the story that he actually had the sharks intrests in mind. But i do stand behind bashing the people who shot it at first.

 

[chasintail]

Man that dude has some serious stones!!!Awesome story!!:martial

 

[Luis]

Hi guys!

I don't agree with anybody killing a GWS:naughty , but in this case I see it in a very simple way... If this fish is a risk for the harvest that is going to give me the financial support to feed my familly... Without a second of hesitation I'll shoot the shark... If there are no other way of getting rid of it... but just think how the hell can you take out of the pen a 2000 Pounder pissed off :vangry shark without killing it??. And what the loses are going to be if you do nothing?... You'll lost the harvest and the pen too (And that is some expensive stuff!!!)

I hope that from this experience, the guys at the Tuna farm find a "B" plan to handle a situation like this .

I'll not call this guy an Idiot, maybe he's a bit insane but he has some big balls to do that.

And if that happened on Mexican territory, you can be sure that this shark was turned into "ceviche", and was the misterious "Plat du jour":t in several restaurants that same week end. Yeahh, I know that this last comment made green peacers, and tree hugers a bit pissed, but if this was an isolated event, is better to eat :friday the poor fish than to waste it:head .

Best wishes to everybody!