A shark that was shot in the head has been found off Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
Joe Kistel is part of Think It Sink It Reef It (TISIRI) based in Jacksonville.
The group promotes interactive offshore habitats for fish and scuba diver.
On a dive last week Kistel and his dive buddies found a shark that had been shot in the head on a project reef 30 miles off Jacksonville Beach.
Mr. Kistel believes the wound was caused by a powerhead or bang-stick instead of a firearm.
“The shark had been shot in the head. You could see it was very near death, if not dead already.” he told CBS 10 News
Powerheads are similar to a gun, in that they fire bullets. However powerheads attach to the end of speargun or pole and is a single shot weapon without a barrel and is normally only used for self-defense.
It is possible the person who shot the shark felt it was being aggressive and fired in defense.
“Regardless, it’s not fun to see a top tier predator shot and dead on one of our artificial reefs we work so hard to put out there.”Kistel added.
In addition he also commented on the NOAA’s rules to allow shark fisherman to take 36 sharks per boat per day.
“From a diver, that sounds like a lot of sharks because when we go diving, we generally don’t see a lot of sharks. We’re lucky if we see one of these sharks on a dive trip. So to say you can take 36 per boat per day sounds horrendous. Sounds like a lot!”
