On the Death of a Mako Shark

I shot these images last Saturday morning. Some local fisherman caught a pretty big mako shark off Montauk point, and wound up taking second place in the 26th Annual Star Island Shark Tournament. In 1975, as a much-too-young seven-year-old, I saw Jaws at the Circle Theater in the Bronx, after my father was talked into taking me, my older sister Margaret and practically every teenager in our neighborhood. I've been terrified and fascinated by sharks ever since, a species that predates dinosaurs by 200 million years. Though filming a shark as it's disemboweled is a shitty thing to do, killing one for sport - with all the unfair advantages of modern equipment - is shittier and barbaric. The final image of the video is the mako's still-beating heart.

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Comment by Roxanne on July 3, 2012 at 11:25pm

I feel so bad for that shark.  This made me cry.

Comment by Angela on July 3, 2012 at 11:11am

Wow.  That was incredible, from an objective visual and physiological viewpoint.  Interesting culturally, too.

Comment by Mona on July 3, 2012 at 10:37am

Thanks for sharing.  Amazing footage.

Comment by Harry on July 3, 2012 at 9:57am

That still beating heart is E.A. Poe-esque!

In 1975, after the movie Jaws sparked a huge shark fishing craze, I was out surfing at the Jacksonville Beach  (Florida) pier when a 14' hammerhead was caught off the pier. It was later declared a world record. I got my first look at the fish once it was already between me and the beach.

Comment by Kristine_ES on June 26, 2012 at 1:27pm

i'm not sure what the benefit of us hunting sharks is, at this stage of our lives. i realize there is no other apex predator that could keep the shark population down (aside from us and the occasional orca), but is the population really that high we have to hunt them?  it's awful. 

Comment by Gita on June 19, 2012 at 9:35am

One time, my husband shot a canebreak rattlesnake and six hours after we had cut off its head and were preparing  the meat for supper, the heart was still beating. It was outside of the snake's body, in fact. Hearts are strange things, apparently with their own battery in some animals, that keep them going even after the animal is dead. I am sorry for this beautiful shark. I hope it was unconscious.

Comment by Judy Thompson on June 19, 2012 at 6:23am

oh, that's dreadful.  the poor creature.

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