"Ghost Net" Pulled From Ocean, Hundreds Of Sharks

There is some speculation that this may be why the lemon shark aggregation in Jupiter hasn't arrived yet:

http://www.wftv.com/news/2770359/detail.html#top

PORT SALERNO, Fla. -- As many as a thousand sharks and fish were found dead when federal officials pulled a large abandoned fishing net from the ocean.

Two divers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accompanied by state officers and two commercial fishing vessels, pulled the 500-yard "ghost net" from nearly 80 feet of water.

A loggerhead sea turtle also was found dead in the net Thursday.

"We have an investigation under way (in) reference to that ghost net," said Jeff Radonski, a special agent with NOAA's fisheries enforcement division in Miami. "It's a crime scene just like anywhere else. We pick up clues and leads from that."

The net, made of thick fabric lines to catch coastal sharks, was first spotted last Friday off the coast of St. Lucie Inlet.

The "sheer weight of all the animals" kept the Coast Guard from retrieving the net last week, divers said.

"It was pretty gruesome," diver Nick Chrobak said.

The mid-sized turtle, bloated and dead for days, was measured and documented by biologists from the Florida Marine Research Institute and later taken to a laboratory in Tequesta to be preserved as evidence.

The divers also videotaped the net and took photographs to be used as evidence. Then the dead sharks and fish were disposed about 12 miles offshore.

"You are responsible for the gear you set out there," Radonski said. "We could have Endangered Species Act violations, and that may elevate itself to criminal intent."

There was a similar incident about two weeks ago when a humpback whale got caught in a drift net off the coast of Cabo San Lucas.

I got the story from Kevin of Amigos del Mar dive shop in Cabo who aided in her release. He told me that the sharks were already circling, waiting for her to die when they found her. It took six divers to cut the net off while she was struggling for life. She was very scared and at first tried hard to swim away and lose the divers, but once they cut the net from around her mouth and head she began to relax and allow the divers to do their work. I heard from several other people who witnessed the rescue that they could see the whale trying to jump across the waters surface with divers hung on for dear life.

Fortunately they were able to free the whale and she went on her way. The net also was full of dead Tuna. Drift net fishing is illegal in Mexico, but little is done to enforce it.