New Ban on Killing Tiger Sharks, Hammerheads

Anglers, take note. Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, it will be illegal to harvest tiger sharks and three species of hammerheads from state waters. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the ban last week during its two-day meeting in Key Largo. According to a commission news release, the decision was made in an effort to further protect marine animals that rely on Florida waters to survive. "Sometimes the appropriate measures of conservation are the problems we avoid, not the problems we have to fix," said Commissioner Brian Yablonski in the news release. The new measures will prohibit the possession, sale and exchange of tiger sharks and great, scalloped and smooth hammerhead sharks harvested from state waters. These sharks can still be caught and released in state waters and can be taken in adjacent federal waters, according to the commission. The movement to ban the killing of these marine animals got its start in 2010, after citizens, shark researchers and shark anglers advocated to see increased protections for sharks, according to the commission. Florida waters offer essential habitat for young sharks, which is important for species such as the slow-to-reproduce tiger shark, which takes about 15 years to reach maturity, the news release said. Sharks have been strictly regulated in Florida since 1992, with a one-shark-per-person, two-sharks-per-vessel daily bag limit for all recreational and commercial harvesters and a ban on shark finning. Roughly two-dozen overfished, vulnerable or rare shark species are catch-and-release only in Florida waters, the release said.