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From the Mouths of Lames
Sometimes recreational fishermen like to think that they are special--like athletes or great outdoorsmen. They are not. They are like anyone else with an expensive hobby--a passionate privileged bunch of children with an inflated self-image. Case in point: Mark of Team Flatline, who sent us letter because of comments we made on another blog. We had no idea who the hell he was, so I actually had to search our own archives, before we started searching other blogs' archived and finally found him. *sigh* Jimmy Buffet much, sandal boy?
From: markowenb@aol.com (markowenb@aol.com)
To: sharky (harassment @summeroftheshark.com)
Subject: Team Flatline
Hey bud!! Lets face it your never going to be happy with what we do that's the cold hard truth. I love to fish. I have done it my whole life. We are a tournament team and 95% of the tournaments we fish are catch and release. Every once in awhile in a tournament you have to kill something that's just the way it is. It is not that I want to kill trust me I would have much rather took a picture and let that tiger shark go, but it was a winning fish so we had to kill it. We also released 4 sharks in the tournament. We use big line and heavy tackle which allows us to get these sharks to the boat as soon as possible to avoid exhaustion. Stop acting like we are doing something so bad. It gets old, it's not like we are going to stop. We have organized three more shark tournaments next year and will always do it. It doesn't bother me that people say it's bad publicity thats your opinion. Good luck with things and be looking for my pictures next year!! CANT WAIT!!!!!!!
Yes, Mark, it does get old.
And you still haven't answered our question from the other blog--
Are you guys called Team Flatline because you are so deadly? Or because you have very minimal brain function?
--Sharky
P.S. Now you are officially in The Chum Slick. You've made it, Mark. Are you happy now?
technorati tags: Shark Fishing, Tiger Sharks, Hate Mail
7 comments
Much better then the one time dead shark shot...that's so 70's man!
The whole "it was a winning fish so we HAD TO KILL IT" -- Uh solipsistic, planet-damaging, hubris much?
WTF man, do what the diver says, get in the water, get close, photograph it with your penis in it's face and call it a day.
Leave the fucking sharks alone, for crissakes, we ALL need them.
Bp
Don't. I swear, it's possible. I don't even kill people when the idea strikes me as somewhat reasonable and certainly appealing. Mark, you can even avoid hitting animals that run across the road. You should be able to avoid killing animals you have to seek out and drag towards you with no problem at all, if killing is something you'd like to give up.
He can't have it both ways. Either he wows us with his lifelong devotion to this activity, or he hasn't done it much and that 5% he mentions isn't a big number.
As for his ethics, I have to say I'm bewildered. The tigershark had to die because there was a competition? That's how we decide life and death? We have to do something because there's prize money, a ribbon, or even a certificate and a frameable gory picture involved? I must be terrible, because that's not how I've decided what I must and must not do.
Come the revolution, I say this guy goes in Hooper's shark cage.
There is nothing impressive about what you've done. Quite the contrary, it is sad, it is disturbing, and it is destructive. If you can't see that, take off the BluBlockers, loosen the grip on your visor, and open your mind a little bit. You do this for sport? You can't just start a beer-and-softball league?
You're not taunting anyone, by the way. You've just made yourself look like a bigger ass than we all already thought you were.
Honestly, wouldn't a catch, measure, photograph and release tournament still manage to cater to your self-serving gravitas? The fact that you feel compelled to flaunt your actions publicly, indignantly and blatantly is just all too telling about your personal mental condition. Somebody didn't get any hugs as a kid!
I had a hammerhead about that size swim within two meters right next to me while skindiving, phew! What a beautiful sight as all that power and magnificent evolutionary design coursed through the water like a specter from another world. Now that is an experience worth sharing. Please get a clue.
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