JHOGUE

All this talk about every fish being killed like the mega sharks and sail fish off the pier is nuts does any one under stand who the real apex predators are....US! if you can drop a bait down and bring up a legal snapper in under 30 sec there not apex predators and if Lou Nanny can catch a legal sailfish off the pier after an hour fight on a 706 thats not so apex. but most important if you can catch and put a 596.6 pound tiger freaking shark in a god dang 20ft flats boat!!!!!!!! he isn't an apex preadator!

Cuz

I read what you wrote, does this have a valid meaning or just venting due to people complaining about killing fish!!! Just curious. :letsdrink

Fishhound

Webster defines a "predator" as "an animal that lives by predation". And defines "predation" as "1. the act of preying or plundering; 2. a mode of life in which food is primarily obtained by killing and consuming animals."

I am not a PETA or a tree hugger, but the following questions beg discussion.

Having defined predator and predation; is killing a shark, or any animal for the fun of it an act of predation?

Other definitions to ponder:

"Kill. verb, 1. To deprive of life. 2. to put an end to. adj. An act of killing"

"Sport. 1. A source of diversion. 2. Physical activity engaged in for pleasure."

"Fun. Something that provides amusement or enjoyment."

And this one. "__________, one who has not lost contact with reality but who engages in abnormally agressive and seriously irresponsible behavior with little or no feeling of guilt."

FishingMedic

An "Apex Predator" is an animal that as an adult is not typically hunted as prey by other animals "<U>in the area in which it lives"</U>.

It does not mean it cannot be captured or even killed by someone/something invading it's area. It merely means that among the animals which reside in that particular area, there aren't many other animals bad enough to hunt/kill it on a regular basisfor food:bowdown:bowdown

Just remember, No matter how big or bad you are.....there is always someone/something somewhere whoisbigger/badder :banghead:banghead

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WW2

You can call us apex when we have the opportunity to have all of our wits and technology available to us, but just like any other animal we can be caught unawares and become the prey. Humans often find themselves prey to any number of animals. So, by your explanation that on any given saturday we are the apex predator and are able to kill sharks and blue marlin, have that same boat we are on as the apex sink and we quickly drop to the lower middle of the food chain.

1923

Sharks kill an average of four humans a year, we kill an average of four million sharks a year.

Before the westward expansion of the White man in North America there were aprox 60 million Bison on the Great Plains. That number was reduced to around one thousand in less than two hundred years.

We have pushed countless species into extinction. We are something, but "Apex Predator" aint one of them.

opus68

I love to fish and i do keep some of the fish I catch. I've never caught an "apex predator" i guess because there are so few around ( and because I'm not a great fisherman). But there are millions of people on this planet that can catch fish much better than me. If they all keep every apex predator they catch, there won't be anymore around. Just like if everyone kept every snapper they caught, there wouldn't be many around. It might be fun for us to do that, but just because something is fun and just because we can do it, doesn't mean we should do it. I like to think that someday I'll take one of my grandchildren fishing. If we don't preserve what we have by sometimes exercising a little restraint, we won't have it forever and my decedents and yours won't be able to enjoy what we all love to do.

seanspots

We might as well go kill as many lions and tigers as we can,then donate to some scientific cause.

Killing sharks is a waste.It takes sharks many,many years to reach sexual maturity in order to reproduce.I have witnessed in my short 36 years, a dramatic decline in large sharks in our area.There are some but not like it was.We as fisherman need to be resonsiblestewards of our resources and killing sharks "because we can" is not being responsible.We really need to get out of the JAWS mindset.My 2 cents..

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Cuz

I'm usually not one to post replies on these subjects, but I am going to say this. I (my wife and I) shark fish alot out in Pensacola Bay. We typically catch between 12 and 15 sharks per trip and we usually keep 1 maybe 2 if were going to have a fish fry. I however don't feel like keeping my limit has any effect on the species. If you will consider all the other illegal activities such as netting, finning etc... this is what hurts our fishery. It's not killing one fish. As for needing years to mature, well so does most living things. It's when people exploit things is when shortages occure, not your normal everyday activities. This is my opinion and I'm not bashing anyone for thiers.

Garbo

Dang.