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Shark catch reels in media

But the wife of the man who helped catch the bull shark isn't happy about it.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published June 5, 2007

An eight-foot-eight-inch bull shark, estimated at around 600 pounds, rests dead on the sea wall with fishermen (from left) Chuck Moyer, Ed Maloney, and his cousin Frank Maloney
	[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Dirk Shadd] An eight foot eight inch bull shark, estimated at around 600 pounds, rests dead on the sea wall with fishermen (from left) Chuck Moyer, Frank Maloney, and his cousin Ed Maloney Photos View photos, submit your shark pictures Watch BayNews9 video

ST. PETERSBURG - Frank Maloney loves to fish. But his wife, Denise, is so devoted to protecting animals, she belongs to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"A card-carrying member," Frank Maloney says.

Little surprise, then, that she's less than pleased with his weekend catch and kill of a mammoth bull shark behind their Venetian Isles home.

Maloney, his cousin Ed and friend Chuck "Tuna" Meyer caught the 9-foot bull shark, which they estimate at more than 600 pounds, after a three-hour struggle that ended at about 1 a.m. Sunday.

"She gave me a hard time," Maloney, 45, said Monday. "She's pretty vocal when it comes to animals."

Vocal, but not vocal enough to speak to reporters.

Instead, Frank Maloney did the interviews Monday, a day after the St. Petersburg Times initially reported on the catch. And there were plenty of them. He said radio stations from as far away as Iowa started calling him at 8 a.m. TV crews showed up at the house. Newspaper reporters called him.

Times readers posted online reactions ranging from "Awesome catch" to "What senseless destruction of life."

And Maloney's Venetian Isles neighbors, whose homes back up to the water, re-evaluated all their kayak trips and weekend swims.

"If I wanted to go swimming before, I wouldn't now," said Gary Lukoski, 54. He moved to Venetian Isles in 1999 with wife Joy Boulenger, 51. "That's a little scary."

University of Florida professor George H. Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack file, said large sharks of all sorts are not unusual for Tampa Bay.

While most varieties are not so aggressive as to attack humans, "I'm more concerned about the bull shark in Florida than any other species," Burgess said.

"If it does decide to attack, the bull sharks in general are fairly aggressive," Burgess said. "And once they start an attack, they are likely to continue an attack."

In 2000, a bull shark killed 69-year-old Thadeus Kubinski after he jumped from a dock into Boca Ciega Bay.

Still, Burgess said large sharks like the bull are overfished "badly" and should not be killed.

"Catch and release is the way we want to go," he said. "Their populations are on decline."

Maloney, a real estate developer, said he has been shark fishing just about every weekend since last summer. He and his friends have caught 14 sharks, most of them no bigger than 300 pounds. Always, they posed for a picture with the sharks and released them back into the water.

But this time, he said, the shark died after the three-hour struggle. It wasn't intentional, he insists.

"This is the first casualty we had," he said. "We're not fishing to kill sharks. We're fishing because it's good entertainment."

But his wife of 14 years doesn't think fishing is entertaining, Maloney said.

"She doesn't come out and enjoy the fishing. She thinks we're hurting them."

Saturday night, she woke to the sound of her husband, cousin and Meyer struggling to reel in the shark.

Maloney recalls that before his wife went back to bed, she urged him: "Make sure you release it! Make sure you release it!"

Sunday, he released the shark's carcass back to the ocean. He plans to keep the jaws.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3403 or svansickler@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 5, 2007, 00:05:23]