Beachgoers say man cut up sharks, left remains on Redington Beach two weeks in a row

REDINGTON SHORES, Fla. - There was a shark sighting in Redington Shores over the weekend, but not necessarily in the way you’d think.

Beach visitors say they saw someone cut the tail off of a shark that had a hook in its mouth Sunday, and leave the rest of it on the beach.

Witnesses concerned over sighting

What they're saying:

Carrie Singh says she and her family saw the same man with his fishing pole and kayak, put pieces of a cut-up shark into a kayak last weekend, paddle out into the water and dump the shark into the water. 

"My biggest concern is if there's a guy here that's coming and just mutilating the wildlife and then putting all the swimmers at risk because he's just irresponsibly just dumping the parts right back into the water where there are swimmers. It's gross," Singh said. "I'm not against people fishing, but mutilating sharks for fun and then putting the public at risk by just dumping the parts right there where people are swimming, it's not good."

"I think he kept the fin though," Akshay Singh said. "I don't know why, and then I thought, ‘wouldn't that just attract more sharks and just endanger everyone in the water?’ So, I was a little worried about that."

They say they could tell by the size of the sharks that they were two different ones. The first was a lot smaller.   

Florida shark fishing rules

Dig deeper:

In Florida, you have to have a shore-based shark fishing permit to fish. Fox 13 showed the pictures to Captain Dylan Hubbard, owner of Hubbard’s Marina, who’s a third party, not related to the incident.  

He says you shouldn’t catch something you’re not going to fully utilize either for food, bait or something else, and says the person definitely shouldn’t have left the rest of the animal at the beach.

Hubbard says stuff like this puts all anglers in a bad light.

"If it's a harvestable animal that's legal and the proper size, you can do honestly what you have every right to do with it," Hubbard said. "Now, there’s a difference between an ethical harvest and an unethical harvest. I believe there's kind of an onus on the harvester or the angler to make sure that, again, respecting the wildlife and respecting the animal and making sure it gets what it deserves, which is a quick and painless dispatch and then also fully utilizing and not wasting parts of the animal that could be used. I would have liked to see the animal removed. Plus, on top of that, as an angler, you have to keep in mind perception is nine-tenths of the law. So, this doesn't do anything good for our fellow anglers and for our angling community. It makes us all look bad. It makes us look malicious."

FWC investigation

What's next:

Carrie Singh says she called the FWC during both incidents. 

The man had already left, and she says the FWC told her to call them back if they see him again. 

The FWC says it’s looking into the incidents. 

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