Eat or be Eaten

It's getting to be that time of the season again. This big Mako shark was landed offshore last week. Not the best eating shark in the pond, I guess the folks who caught it decided to keep it anyhow. Back in 1995 I went fishing in the (in)famous "shark hole" near the Queen Isabella Memorial causeway. Instead of my intended prey, after a three hour fight, I ended up landing a 220 pound Atlantic Stingray. I kept the monster, only because I figured it probably would be a state record. As we transported it to the island, it discharged about 10 live pups in a huge gush over the side. Then the engine on the skiff overheated, and we had to be towed back to port. By time we reached the island, it was late and no certified scale large enough for the critter was available. So we put it in the environmental chamber at the lab, and waited till the next morning to transport the behemoth over to Port Isabel, at the Shrimp porcessing plant where a certified scale was available. Missed the state record by something like 18 pounds. It would've for sure been a 35 pound test class record though...but what a dubious honor. I decided to carve it up into steaks, and for months, everybody had their fill of blackened, grilled, fried, broiled stingray. No, it doesn't taste like chicken...more like scallops. As an afternote, the epic struggle between man and chondrichythid caused a completely torn extensor tendon in my right arm, which later had to be surgically reattached. The fight was like being attached to a livingroom rug with a 25 horsepower evidnrude turned up full throttle....