Politician Says This Species Is Getting Too Greedy – Loose Cannon
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When all else fails, try journalism. Politician Says This Species Is Getting Too GreedyBill To Address Sharks Bitting off Hunks of Fish We’ve Caught
The author is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee, which probably explains her unhealthy fascination with Florida politics. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. This opinion piece was published on August 11, 2025 in the Florida Phoenix and is reprinted here with permission. By DIANE ROBERTSThe sharks are eating the fish. Too many fish. Our damn fish. For 450 million years, the sharks have had everything their way, swimming around the ocean like they own the place, chowing down on that endless seafood buffet. Who do those sharks think they are? Other than, like, sharks. We celebrate George Washington and Abraham Lincoln one lousy day a year. Sharks get a whole week. No más. Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott means to show these arrogant top predators he means business. Sen. Scott’s elegantly named and creatively capitalized “Supporting the Health of Aquatic systems through Research, Knowledge, and Enhanced Dialogue (or SHARKED) Act will address bad behavior in the shark community.¹ No longer will the sharks be allowed to appropriate fish for their own selfish nutritional ends. It’s a bipartisan effort: Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, is Scott’s SHARKED co-sponsor, although he’s being cautious about what he says. Schatz is from Hawaii, where certain sharks are considered sacred, what with them being people’s reincarnated ancestors. Funnily enough, Schatz was once part of the shark-coddling caucus, all-in on legislation to protect those deep sea devils. But he’s clearly seen the light, read the room, and smelled the Trumpy zeitgeist: It’s all about the money. Sport fishing in Hawaii is worth hundreds of millions. Scott also once expressed a bit of sympathy for sharks. When he saw images of boaters “abusing a young tiger shark in Citrus County,” he wrote a tough letter to the head of NOAA demanding somebody do something. The senator still wants somebody to do something, and, by God, the Scott-Schatz bill is going to do it. More or less. ‘Unnatural Food Source’It directs the secretary of commerce to put together a task force to figure out why elasmobranch cartilaginous fishes (as ichthyology nerds call them) gobble up the very fish sportsmen and women spend so much cash to catch. You drop big money on a three-day charter out of Destin, spend another grand on your Yeti cooler, your Bora Bora hat, your Columbia convertible pants, your Coors, your Jack, your Pringles, your Publix subs, your peanut M&Ms, you finally get something on the line, but next thing you know, Mister Jerk Shark smells the blood in the water, swims up, and takes a big old bite of your 400 lb. blue marlin. OK, maybe the shark was hungry, but that’s no excuse. The American Sportfishing Association, the American Fisheries Society, and others rightly upset about sharks’ indefensible habit of consuming their usual source of protein, complain “shark depredation is clearly detrimental to anglers and predated fish that would otherwise be released.” They point out all that illicit predation “creates an unnatural food source for sharks.” The sharks would argue fish are, in fact, their entirely natural food source, but if it comes to a choice between those toothy behemoths and a $230 billion industry, the sharks lose. Bottom line: Sharks are hurting the economy. This is a condensed version of Diane Robert’s full essay “Pitted against capitalism, poor sharks don’t stand a chance,” linked here. LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid. 1 Yes, humor aside, this is an actual bill. It’s goal is to “address shark depredation” and develop “techniques and strategies to reduce harmful interactions between sharks and humans, including the development and use of non-lethal deterrents.” National Marine Fisheries must report back to congress on this topic in two years. You’re currently a free subscriber to LOOSE CANNON. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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