Florida Man Beats Shark to Death with Hammer [Video]

A Florida man was caught on a video hammering a juvenile shark to death at a Florida beach earlier this week.

The incident received public backlash on social media and prompted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to investigate into the incident.

Man Beats Shark with Hammer

YouTube local news channel WKMG News 6 uploaded a graphic video of the incident which shows an unidentified man beating a shark over its head with a hammer on a Florida beach, prompting investigation by the local wildlife officials.

The violence against the shark was apparently captured via a CCTV at Harbour House in Florida, according to the police, as cited by the local news outlet.

The clip has a length of 3 minutes and 17 seconds and it can be seen that one of the two men wearing a purple shirt near the shark was holding the hammer while pounding the young marine animal.

The other man wearing a black trunk temporarily left the scene and only to return while his companion drags the shark back into the ocean.

The video was first shared by FOX 35 News and was filmed on Tuesday, December 20, by a surfcam at the Harbour House place, a wedding venue located in Indian Harbor Beach, Florida.

Thoughts on the Video

John Hourston, the founder of volunteer conservation pressure group called Blue Planet Society, told Newsweek the video seems to show that an angler is trying to remove the hook from a shark before beating the animal to death with a hammer.

Hourston added that this is unfortunately a typical case for many shark species being treated in the US, emphasizing that there is an outdated perception that sharks are somehow "evil" and should be "punished" still exists with some parts of society, as cited by the online news platform.

The platform said a source told FOX 35 News that the shark in the video is actually a protected lemon shark, although the station was reportedly unable to independently confirm the said information.

Lemon sharks are classified as "vulnerable" under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Shark Conservation

According to the NOAA Fisheries, the US continues to spearhead in promoting the global conservation and management of shark by working with regional fisheries management organization and other international entities.

These measures aim to promote global shark conservation.

However, some sharks are still at risk due to overexploitation, overfishing, and vessel strikes.

In 2003, sharks were first included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) after the Conference of the Parties to CITES decided to include the basking shark and whale shark to be protected.

While shark species under the protected list are not necessarily in the brink of extinction, trade activities of them is controlled by respective local authorities in their own territories to avoid threat of the sea creature's survival.