‘What’s going on in Florida?’ Man who posed with doomed tiger shark tells his side
It wasn’t me.
A Florida man who is seen in a widely shared Facebook photo smiling while holding up a distressed shark said he isn’t the one who caught the fish and feels bad about posing with it.
“I’ve never seen one before,” Joseph Wilson told the Citrus County Chronicle. “He had a rope tied to its tail and it was still in the water. I said, ‘Can I take a picture of it?’”
The 22-year-old Lutz resident said he then picked it up for “about 10 seconds” before putting it back in the water. “I’m an animal lover. I would never do anything to hurt one.”
After Wilson posted the photo on Facebook, the Real Florida hunting and fishing page shared the disturbing snap with the caption, “What’s going on in Florida?” with a wide-eyed emoji.
Soon enough, outraged social media users were contacting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — which launched an investigation. The fish turned out to be an illegally caught tiger shark from the Gulf of Mexico.
“The FWC is aware of the incident that took place over the weekend on the Chassahowitzka River involving a tiger shark,” FWC spokeswoman Karen Parker said in a statement to media. “The FWC takes this very seriously and is grateful to everyone who reported this incident. Tiger sharks are prohibited from harvest in state waters.”
Witnesses told WFLA that the shark did not survive. The creature was gutted, its blood spilling into the river nicknamed The Chazz.
The two fishermen who were seen dragging the shark now face second-degree misdemeanors.
“FWC law enforcement officers have investigated this incident and have issued a Notice to Appear to two individuals for taking a prohibited species of shark,” said another FWC statement. “The two subjects currently have a Citrus County court date.”
The suspects were not publicly identified; Wilson will not be charged.
This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 3:30 PM.
