Shem Creek - A seafood-lover's paradise!

Stephen Liesen, of Quincy Illinois, caught a 380lb. lemon shark last Thursday, just outside Port Royal Sound in 35′ of water, claiming the new state record. His lemon shark beat the old record by 10lbs., which was set back in 2002 by Ronald Price of Ladson.

Stephen said the female lemon shark put up a good fight, and that it took him over 30 minutes to get it to the boat, leaving him exhausted. He used a 6.5′ Shakespeare Ugly Stik rod paired with a Shimano Tiagra reel, probably similar to the one pictured below, and had cut barracuda fillets for bait.

Workers in Hong Kong sort shark fins destined for dinner tables.
Credit: NYT

Sharks have been around for millions of years, but like all things at the top of the food chain that we consume, our insatiable appetites will get the best of us in the end if we don’t practice some good conservation techniques.

We already know from the WWF that bluefin tuna will be extinct by 2012. Now we have another big problem: sharks are being killed by the millions — 100 million a year according to the NYT!

Click on those piles of shark fins. Notice the guy in the back hiding his face? Yea, he knows scalping sharks just for their fins is wrong, but one way or another, the industry flourishes.

Their specialty: Double Boiled Superior Shark’s Fin w/Seawhelk 响蜾炖鸡鲍翅

As a matter of fact, American owned Citibank has been using shark fins for marketing; their website is currently advertising a 15% discount at Singapore’s Imperial Court Shark’s Fin Restaurant.

Thanks to public awareness from conservationists though – most notably Hong Kong’s Shark Saver’s campaign – the word is finally getting out. Maybe now, sharks will be left alone and allowed to continue their important job as a top-level predator.

Here’s a short teaser of Shark Saver’s Hong Kong campaign highlighting several people taking a stand, vowing not to eat shark fin soup, and asking others to join in. It’s the first in a series of several films from their Hong Kong filming project launched in conjunction with the “Pledge Not to Eat Shark Fin Soup” campaign and Shark Savers Hong Kong. Take the pledge now!