Alternatives to Shark Catch and Kill Charters

In today's modern world there are many ways to show ones' love for the ocean without having such negative, catastrophic and dead-end impacts on it and on its' inhabitants. 'Mark the Shark' Quartiano is one of the people that need to be brought into the limelight for constantly creating negative turbulence and for proudly helping in the depletion of shark populations, all in the name of a good time. 

 This particular person runs a fishing charter business that, amongst other animals, kills sharks – even though they've been told several times to please practice other more ocean friendly alternatives. Some of the sharks that he makes a habit of catching and killing are Hammerhead sharks, usually Scalloped Hammerheads. "Hammerhead sharks (Sphyrnidae) exhibit extremely specialized traits and complex behaviors that have increased their vulnerability to human exploitation, which impedes conservation efforts." (Gallagher, et. al. 2014)

"Shark Jaws for Sale" inside Mr. Quartiano's office.

 With information like this and so much more like it, it would be very wise for Mr. Mark Quartiano to begin different practices other than catch and kill. It has also been noted and studied that one quarter of sharks and rays "...are threatened according to IUCN Red List criteria due to overfishing (targeted and incidental)." (Dulvy, et. al. 2014) That plainly translates to one fourth of the shark and ray populations are threatened, or endangered. These statistics are only an extremely small fraction of the science that's out there and with this kind of overwhelming information Mr. Quartiano really should practice other more sustainable fishing options (i.e. catch and release), so that he and his clients may still have sharks to see in the future.

 Dead Tiger shark on cover of magazine, inside Mr. Quartiano's office.

 There are also even more sustainable activities like diving, snorkeling, catch and release, shark watching tours and all of these help boost the business, the economy and the environment. It is not a surprise that shark (friendly) based tourism can do more for a country's environment and economy than catch and kill practices can. In Fiji, it has been estimated that "...direct taxes from shark divers in 2010 were approximately US $5.9 million." (Vianna, et. al. 2011) That's not all, there can also be indirect perks from the shark tourism based companies such as better salaries to the locals, a more fruitful economy and of course, thriving reef systems due to healthy shark populations.

Mr. Quartiano's office and chair.

 This post is to openly ask Mr. Quartiano to at least consider chartering catch and release trips, and not just catch and kill. Please keep in mind that when you kill a shark, you are killing a migratory species that takes a long time to mature, usually has few young and is responsible for balancing other marine creatures' populations. You are also killing an animal that doesn't only live in South Florida waters, so essentially you are taking away someone else's right to have possibly seen that animal in the wild. Please, be considerate of others because we all want to see sharks alive, not thrashing, bloodied and dead on your boat. Thank you.