This is becoming all to common.

[surfstix1963]

A Coast Guard crew found an illegal gill net with hundreds of dead sharks 4 miles off the Texas coast. The crew of a Coast Guard Station South Padre Island response boat spotted the gill net approximately 17 miles north of the U.S. – Mexican maritime border. The gill net was 5 miles long and was loaded with 345 dead sharks.
The species of shark seized included 225 black tip, 109 bonnet,and 11 bull sharks.
“Gill nets indiscriminately kill any fish or marine mammal it snares across miles of ocean, often leaving much of the catch spoiled by the time it is hauled in,” according to Cmdr. Daniel Deptula, the response officer for Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi. “Mexican fisheries have been depleted due to wasteful fishing methods such as gill netting and over fishing, which is why there has been increased illegal fishing activity into U.S. waters.”
Typically, catches of shark such as this are also only harvested for their fins, and the rest of the shark is discarded. During calendar year 2012, Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi seized more than 49 miles of gill net from illegal fishing activities.
Gill nets are illegal throughout Texas and devastating to the marine environment.
“We hope our efforts continue to disrupt and dissuade this illegal enterprise along our South Texas shores,” said Deptula.
The Coast Guard works closely alongside the Texas Parks and Wildlife agency, the Department of State, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enforce domestic fisheries laws and protect the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone from foreign encroachment.

[captnemo]

That made me sick surfstix.

Another source of massive shark deaths are the asians. Take a look at this


Friday, January 4, 2013 8:48am PST

Alarming sight: thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop

By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

The number of shark fins set out to dry like the morning laundry on a Hong Kong factory building rooftop is staggering. To look at the accompanying images and video, revealing perhaps 10,000 fins, and to grasp that sharks are being slaughtered at a furious pace so their fins can be used to make soup, one cannot help but wonder how many years will pass before at least some shark species are banished to extinction.
Shark conservation movements are growing, especially regarding the cruel practice of finning, but the striking imagery supplied by photojournalist Alex Hofford illustrates that conservation efforts, while they have made progress, have a long away to go toward stemming the killing of sharks for their fins.

Hofford states on his blog that traders have taken to using rooftops instead of ground-level markets to dry their fins out of public view: "I'm now of the opinion that this place has been operating for a very long time, and it's only in the last three days that their activities have come to light."
China is the world's largest shark fin market and Hong Kong is a hub through which many fins pass. Hofford focused his camera on a specific location: Kwong Ga Factory Building, 64 Victoria Rd., Kennedy Town.

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/...+kong+rooftop/

Though it's not illegal to posses and sell fins in China, most traders keep their operations at least somewhat private to avoid negative PR. Asked how he was able to obtain his vantage point Hofford responded, via email: "Evading security guards, running up and down dusty stair cases, climbing up rusty ladders, and general low-level paranoia!"

The photojournalist blogged: "The front line in the war against the shark fin trade has shifted from the sidewalks to the roof tops. The theory goes that after being exposed at street level, they have now sought to move their activities out of the public eye to avoid further backlash."
Shark finning, which involves the removal of fins from captured sharks and the tossing of shark carcasses overboard, is increasingly under fire. The practice is illegal in some areas, including the U.S., and many U.S. states have banned the sale and possession of shark fins.

But scientists estimate that up to 70 million sharks are killed each year, solely for their fins. Most of them end up in China, where shark-fin soup is a delicacy enjoyed mostly by the affluent. It's not clear whether the fins in Hofford's images were from sharks killed only for their fins, but it's easy to draw that conclusion.



"I feel disgusted with humanity," Hofford blogs. "These shark fins belong in the ocean, not the rooftop of an industrial building. Rhinos, elephants, tigers. Now sharks. When will it ever end?"

It will not end, unfortunately, until demand for shark-fin soup shrinks to an insignificant level.


http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/...+kong+rooftop/

[surfstix1963]

I don't even know what to say anymore besides Greed and Money....

[storminsteve]

That sucks!

[hookset]

I don't mean to sound racist but the asians kill everything. They can't even have fishing tourneys in their mainland waters because they killed all the big fish only tiny ones left. No sense of the future at all.

[vpass]

This pisses me off. I think our oceans are doomed. I don't think my grand kids will enjoy it like I do. Real sad

[surfstix1963]

I don't think it was a racist statement just the facts,Mexico is just about fished out so they are moving into Texas with the nets killing everything.I would say the Oceans will be a giant dump of stagnant water with the balance of the nitrogen cycle being upset so quickly it is a delicate balance regardless of how large the Atlantic Ocean is.

[hookset]

I don't think it was a racist statement just the facts,Mexico is just about fished out so they are moving into Texas with the nets killing everything.I would say the Oceans will be a giant dump of stagnant water with the balance of the nitrogen cycle being upset so quickly it is a delicate balance regardless of how large the Atlantic Ocean is.

Agreed.