Fishery protection officials havey described the landing of the largest-ever fish caught on a rod and line in Irish or British Waters, as unfortunate.Last week, Swiss fisherman Joe Waldis (70) was celebrating his prize catch, a giant 480kg sixgill shark which he landed off Loop Head, Co Clare, after a 35-minute struggle with a rod and line. But his angling tale has drawn criticism from several conservation organisations.
In Britain, the Shark Trust described the catch as regrettable, and said it was unfortunate that the shark had to be killed in order to establish a record, reports the Irish Independent. Yesterday, Ireland's Central Fisheries Board said it supported and promoted a policy of "catch-and-release angling" for all species, and its priority was conservation over catch. "The recent landing of a sixgill shark in Co Clare, while undoubtedly the catch of a lifetime, was unfortunate," said Dr Ciaran Byrne, the board's chief executive officer. "The fish should have been photographed and returned alive to the water."
Luke Aston, skipper of the charter boat on the record-breaking trip, yesterday defended the catch and said it was the angler's call to have the shark hauled ashore to be weighed. "If you want to claim a record with a specific fish, it has to be weighed ashore. That is the choice of the angler," he said. He acknowledged that the number of sharks killed and dumped every year was "appalling".
Meanwhile, Joe Waldis' "catch of a lifetime" has also drawn criticism from members of the media. Irish Independent journalist Ian O'Doherty wrote in the paper yesterday, "Anyone who kills something as beautiful as a shark simply for the ego massage is, frankly, a bit of a bastard." See the full article here.
