A 9-foot-long tiger shark was found on a South Carolina beach with its teeth and jaw removed, according to a photo published of the slain animal.
The shark was discovered near Bay Point, a 347-acre undeveloped island near Hilton Head, according to the report. Bryan Frazier, a shark biologist at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said the tiger shark was likely between 200 and 300 pounds.
Frazier said the cuts found on the shark are unusual.
“They eviscerated it .... with a straight-line cut that wasn’t done by an animal,” Frazier told the paper. “It’s really a strange thing to do.”
Scientists also didn’t cut open the shark, he said, adding that “it’s a bit perplexing to see why anyone would do this.”
“You hate to see anything killed for no reason,” The State quoted him as saying.
Fishing captian Chip Michalove tweeted a picture of the mutilated shark on May 16.
“Tiger shark killed in port royal sound, jaws cut out and gutted. I’m all for keeping mahi, grouper, snapper, etc. but to kill an old fish just for the jaws is a bit selfish,” he wrote on Twitter.
His post was met with harsh reactions.
“That is so sad. I am fisherman through and through. I love to fish but suffer from Aquaphobia. I will not go in the water due to sharks but I would never hurt nor target them. That is really sad. I have told my sons how important these fish r. That’s photo is heart breaking,” one person wrote to him.
Added another: “Wrong on every level. I am not an animal activist of any kind but we WILL be judged by how we treat our wildlife. Whoever did this needs to be found, tried and sent to prison. They are truly sick and perverted.”
Michalove told The State that he’s worried that too many tiger sharks are killed in the area each year.
“Sharks that big can’t just be replaced,” he said. “I’m worried for their population.”
“Sharks are the lions of the ocean ecosystem, and killing them means killing a lot of species below them that we also rely on,” he added.
‘Close Encounter’
A commercial fisherman and his girlfriend spotted a large great white shark last month lunging from the water near the Florida Keys.Fortunately for them, they caught the incident on camera.
“Oh my God,” Suzy Grumbo, the girlfriend of fisherman Carter Bates, can be heard in the video.
The big shark appeared to want what was inside of Bates’s chum bag while his girlfriend filmed it.
