Northwest man charged for allegedly ‘wrestling’ sharks in Puget Sound: police
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An Oregon man has been charged with allegedly illegally catching and “wrestling” protected blunt-nosed sixgill and broadnose sevengill sharks in Puget Sound.
The Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife recently shared body camera footage of a police officer who confronted 27-year-old Connor Seifert in June in Pierce County, Washington.
“You know the shark rules,” the officer is heard telling Seifert in the video. “You can’t remove the sixgills completely or partially from the water.
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Photo of a video shared by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in which the suspect allegedly appears to be holding a shark by its tail. (WDFW)
“When you wrestle six-gills to shore like that, you jump on its back, exposing its gills to the air,” the officer continued. “You know as well as anyone that Puget Sound is a hotbed for these sharks. There is a direct correlation between catching these sharks at this stage of their lives and the mortality rate of offspring within the mothers.”
He added, “All their young die after they exhaust themselves fighting their way to shore. And then, sooner than you think, sixgills and sevengills will no longer be returning to Puget Sound.”
This came after months of tracking Seifert’s movements and online posts, and officers eventually set up surveillance to catch him making an illegal seizure.
Allegedly, the suspect posted on social media while sitting on the back of a shark while keeping his mouth open. (WDFW)
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He was charged in Pierce County with nine counts of second-degree unlawful recreational fishing and one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public official. The first is a misdemeanor and the second is a gross misdemeanor.
Misdemeanors carry a fine of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail if convicted, while misdemeanors carry a fine of up to $5,000 and a year in jail.
Broad-nosed sevengill shark. (Anadolu via Getty Images, File)
“It is illegal to hunt six-gill and seven-gill sharks, and unfortunately officers are seeing an increasing number of online posts showing these sharks being targeted and then illegally removed or partially removed from the water,” the department said in a post about Seifert’s accusations. he said.
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Seifert claimed he was not targeting the sharks and had caught them by accident, but videos he posted on social media, allegedly showing a shark holding its mouth open, sitting on its back and grabbing it by its tail on shore as it tried to escape, painted another picture.
The department said it had received 14 complaints about Seifert, mostly related to his alleged targeting of sharks.
A Washington State ferry crosses Puget Sound, heading towards Seattle. (Corbis via Getty Images)
“Puget Sound acts as a nursery for six-gill and seven-gill sharks before they head out into the ocean,” the department said.
The ministry added: “This is one of the key reasons why it is illegal to target these sharks locally, because fishermen who hunt these creatures are targeting them at a time when the animals’ lives are highly variable.”
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Both shark species are listed as “Species of Greatest Conservation Need” in Washington State.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, blunt-nosed six-gills are classified as “near threatened” and broad-nosed seven-gills are classified as “vulnerable.”
