Fined for shark fishing !!!!!!!!!!!!!

im soory but that is just crazy to me.." He said the shark was released back to the ocean." so where is the problem, maybe it lies with the the swimmers that seen to flock next to us.

"Several species of sharks are protected under state and federal law, and catching them is prohibited."

You cannot stop a certain species prohibited or not to bite your line, if it is hungry you can catch it.

some of these laws put up weren't thought of very well, and might need actual fisherman's help in establishing laws that have even an inch of leniency towards those who try to follow the laws, instead of drill them with huge fines because they were unaware.

Politics is everything in this day and age and us fishermen have to step up and protect ourselves in one way or another, I know a couple of people who try very hard in order to protect our rights and even better our fishing, for example, Will Fundora is a key advocate of the rebuilding, restoration, and/or keeping of east coast piers and beaches for fishing.

How would it feel if your favorite fishing hole was shut down from you? I have seen it happen with my own eyes and even told myself there was nothing I could do to get it back up and open, but where there is a will there is a way, talk to people in charge, ask, demand, and keep on going, eventually the fishermen will get their way one day!

This is just their way of discouraging people from fishing..they haven't (yet) been able to totally ban or target certain groups of fishermen so they try to work their way around your rights and encroach on them in hopes that you will give them up for fear of being fined, arrested, ect. until they can legally pass legislation and you cannot fish period. Since they just can't take your rights away they just work around them in the meantime and attempt to discourage people from exercising their rights. Every time you go fishing there is a chance you could catch a protected species, and their solution to protect sharks is to make things more dangerous for the angler, having to dehook the shark in waist deep water. This is in hope that people will stop fishing for sharks in that area all together..most of the sharks they get up that way are sand tigers. Pretty soon more and more species will be under protection, maybe even every shark species at some point will be under protection..not because the population of sharks is decreasing, but as an attempt to decrease the population of shark fishermen. Lemon sharks are protected here, however there seems to be no shortage of them, I've caught 4 lemons in the past week, all brought on the sand for dehooking and all successfully released. The sharks are protected because they are a common species here, it is hard not to catch lemon sharks if you fish down here. People just need to keep fishing, show the political scum how passionate we are for the sport and that we won't go away. There may not be any beach parking for me during the best shark fishing times, but that doesn't stop me from shark fishing, I park the car elsewhere and walk..there is nothing that says I cannot be out on the beach, just can't park my car there. I play the same game that they play and manipulate the loopholes just like they do. I'm all for protecting species if that means not keeping the catch, but I don't think that should interfere with our right to fish catch and release style.

Very well said John - thanks for your input and hopefully others feel the same way.

This is just their way of discouraging people from fishing..they haven't (yet) been able to totally ban or target certain groups of fishermen so they try to work their way around your rights and encroach on them in hopes that you will give them up for fear of being fined, arrested, ect. until they can legally pass legislation and you cannot fish period. Since they just can't take your rights away they just work around them in the meantime and attempt to discourage people from exercising their rights. Every time you go fishing there is a chance you could catch a protected species, and their solution to protect sharks is to make things more dangerous for the angler, having to dehook the shark in waist deep water. This is in hope that people will stop fishing for sharks in that area all together..most of the sharks they get up that way are sand tigers. Pretty soon more and more species will be under protection, maybe even every shark species at some point will be under protection..not because the population of sharks is decreasing, but as an attempt to decrease the population of shark fishermen. Lemon sharks are protected here, however there seems to be no shortage of them, I've caught 4 lemons in the past week, all brought on the sand for dehooking and all successfully released. The sharks are protected because they are a common species here, it is hard not to catch lemon sharks if you fish down here. People just need to keep fishing, show the political scum how passionate we are for the sport and that we won't go away. There may not be any beach parking for me during the best shark fishing times, but that doesn't stop me from shark fishing, I park the car elsewhere and walk..there is nothing that says I cannot be out on the beach, just can't park my car there. I play the same game that they play and manipulate the loopholes just like they do. I'm all for protecting species if that means not keeping the catch, but I don't think that should interfere with our right to fish catch and release style.

start fishing after dark like at 9 pm ... when there's no one on the beach ... i told ya we got to find a way to fight even will said
it no one want to do shit abut ... we going to lose these sport

Joes right. Fish at night when there aren't tons of beach goers. One there aren't guna be any swimmers that could potentially get hurt and two, who needs a media storm. Caused by people who have never seen a shark in there life and think that your doing this to hurt it.