Broncos All-Pro linebacker Von Miller might be treading some perilous waters after catching a nearly 10-foot scalloped hammerhead shark on a recent chartered fishing trip off the coast of Miami.
The former Super Bowl MVP posted photos of the catch to his Instagram account. Although Miller has been a vocal advocate of shark conservation in the past, the post appears to show Miller breaking the law when it comes to fishing for hammerhead sharks in Florida and that the shark, statistically, isn’t likely to have survived the encounter.
Under Florida law, the harvesting or landing of great and smooth hammerheads is prohibited. Under the current code 68B-44, landing refers to the physical act of bringing the harvested organism ashore or completely removing the animal from the water. State law also states that should a hammerhead shark be hooked, it should be immediately returned alive and unharmed.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has opened an investigation into whether Miller violated these regulations by removing the shark from the water for the purposes of taking photos. Violations of these regulations is a a second degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.
“The FWC has received the images and video and is looking into whether or not a violation occurred in this incident,” FWC spokeperson Carol Lyn Parrish said in a statement.
Statistics show that after being removed from the water following a prolonged fight, as was the case in Miller’s Instagram trophy, the shark had may have had a roughly 10 percent chance of survival.
Because hammerheads build up high levels of stress during prolonged angling battles, they require constant oxygenation to rid the body of lactic acid that builds up in the shark’s cells. By removing the hammerhead from the water following the fight, Miller’s fish was likely subject to the 90 percent mortality rate associated with the species after release.
According to a study on shark mortality rates by the University of Miami, “just because a shark swims away after it is released, doesn’t mean that it will survive the encounter. This has serious conservation implications because those fragile species might need to be managed separately, especially if we are striving for sustainability in catch and release fishing and even in bycatch scenarios.”
Predictably, PETA feigned disgust over the act.
“Seeing Von Miller smile as he holds a shark’s bloody body should turn any kind person’s stomach,” PETA’s senior director Stephanie Bell said in a statement
Scalloped hammerheads routinely grow to lengths of 15 feet and can live up to 35 years. Both great and smooth hammerheads are listed as “Endangered” by the IUCN Red List due to extreme fishing pressures and their slow rates of reproduction. It is estimated that the worldwide population of hammerheads has declined by nearly 80 percent in the last 25 years.
Click here to learn more about how to safely handle large sharks such as hammerheads.
