- On Tuesday, Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) announced a suspect has been charged for cutting off the heads of a tiger and a bull shark and leaving the bodies on the beach at PINS in early August.
- Padre Island National Seashore National Park Service (NPS) law enforcement and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) resulted in a suspect being cited for a “waste of fish" crime.
- It is illegal to leave shark or bait fish taken from the water to die without the intent to use the fish for consumption or bait.
- Suspect(s) in this case will face criminal fines, along with civil restitution fines.
On Tuesday, Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) announced a suspect(s) has been charged with cutting off the heads of a tiger and a bull shark and leaving the carcasses of the animals on the beach at PINS in early August. Game Wardens did not specify if there it was one or multiple suspects that were charged. These actions are illegal and considered a "waste of fish" crime. It is not lawful to leave shark or bait fish taken from the water to die without the intent to use the fish for consumption or bait.
“So I was actually there that weekend it happened. You know, it did strike a chord with me and a bunch of my other colleagues. Just because, like I said, we frequent that beach pretty often, especially during the summertime," Rome Fuentes, a PINS visitor and avid shark fisherman said.
Padre Island National Seashore NPS law enforcement and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) worked together to find the suspect(s) in the case.
“We had a few individuals that apparently caught some sharks, a tiger shark, and a bull shark, and they cut the heads off the sharks, decapitated them, and left the rest of the fish there," Captain Ben Baker, Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden said.
Violators of this type of crime can face criminal fines, as well as civil restitution fines.
“And so we just remind all of our anglers, and people everywhere, park visitors everywhere, that if they see anything like that, give us a call and that our anglers, that is a violation, its a violation per fish. So we’ve got two different aspects of it. We’ve got the criminal side, which can be up to a five hundred dollar fine. And then we’ve got civil restitution. And that civil restitution could be thousands upon thousands of dollars owned to the state of Texas," Captain Baker said. "And that civil restitution goes by the species type, and the species size of that individual. So in this particular case, that tiger shark and bull shark, individuals are going to be paying thousands or dollars in that restitution on top of any criminal fines."
One reason why someone may have beheaded the sharks and left them to die is to collect the jaws.
“With sharks, we see in particular, they want the jaws. And so they unfortunately let the fish go to waste. They want the jaws for some sort of trophy," Captain Baker said.
Hundreds of people voiced their feelings about this crime on the Padre Island National Seashore Facebook post about it. Many neighbors were glad to see that the suspect(s) are facing consequences.
“My first thought, I would say, it was definitely not somebody within our community. It had to be somebody that recently just got into the quote-on-quote sport of land-based shark fishing," Fuentes said.
According to Padre Island National Seashore NPS law enforcement, if you witness a wildlife crime, call the TPWD Operation Game Thief (OGT) hotline at 1-800-792-GAME (4263). Rewards of up to $1,000 are offered for information that leads to the conviction of a wildlife crime.
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