On April 12th. 2005, the event pictured below occurred on a sport fishing boat off Newport Beach Cal. USA.

A juvenile White Shark was gaffed and killed by the crew of a boat operated by Newport Landing Sportfishing.

The shark was then cut up and distributed amongst the customers.
With white sharks being protected, this killing is illegal.
The crew and the owner claim that they did not know it was a white shark until it was too late.

Some paying customers on this trip took some photos and within a few hours, these photos started appearing on the Internet only to be removed as soon as Newport Landing Sportfishing found out.

On April 15th. 2005, the owner of Newport Landing Sportfishing issued this statement:

To Whom It May Concern:

Below is an overview of the facts available to Newport Landing Sportfishing regarding the event of April 12th. With people's livelihoods hanging in the balance Newport Landing Sportfishing wanted to ensure the details to be as accurate as possible.

The crew began their day rock cod fishing. As they sat at a spot just after daybreak, a shark swam up to the boat with a gill net around its neck and had about 6 feet of net trailing it. Due to the net the shark was behaving sluggish. The deck hand that spotted it believed it to be a Mako shark that was injured to such a degree, that the decision was made to gaff it. The captain also believed the shark to be a Mako. After putting the shark on the boat, safety of the passengers became priority. The fish was subdued and subsequently distributed among the passengers. If the crew believed this was not a Mako Shark, they never would have given it out to passengers to eat, because White Sharks are not considered edible.
After confirming that the shark was not a Mako, but likely a White Shark the crew was in disbelief and realized immediately the severity of what happened. The crew was in shock.

Newport Landing Sportfishing has reported this incident with the Department of Fish & Game and is awaiting their response. As a precaution against incidents like this occurring in the future, we have required all crew members to review all Fish and Game regulations. No one involved with Newport Landing Sportfishing was aware that this was a white shark, until it was brought to our attention after the fact. Our policy is to obey all Fish and Game regulations.

Sincerely

Jim Watts
Owner

I am informed that this is not the first time that juvenile white sharks have been caught in the area and because they are protected by law, they are either discarded or cut up. Anyone can claim that they "did not know it was a white shark" so here are a few questions that I would like to ask Mr. Watts:

1) How long has the captain been operating?
2) What experience does he and his crew have?
3) How could it be possible that with all their experience they do not know
the difference between a white shark and a mako?
4) Why was the white cut up and distributed? Was it because they did not
want take it ashore whole?
5) Why are all the photos being pulled back?

I can ask many more but I know that for the moment I will get no true answers.

SO.....WHAT NEXT?

The Department of Fish and Game have to make sure that these episodes do not keep happening, and that those breaking the law should be punished.

Fishermen should learn the difference from one species of fish to another and they should know all the laws.

And... the general public must keep reporting these kind of horrific law breaking killings of protected species as soon as they happen.

It is the only way to help stop their extermination.