A fisherman in Panama City Beach was charged with harvesting a great hammerhead, a misdemeanor in Florida, by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers. Granger Ray Wooten, 21, of Lafayette, Georgia, was charged after witnesses reported seeing the man punch the shark repeatedly in its gills.
“The white male had his left arm around the shark’s head and was punching it repeatedly in the stomach,” the witness said in the FWC’s report.
The officers were patrolling St. Andrew State Park about 9 p.m. on Oct. 24 when they received a complaint that two men landed an approximately 9-foot hammerhead shark and brought it ashore while posing for pictures –including one with a small child on its back, according to the report.
The shark later was found dead underneath the St. Andrews fishing pier.
During the investigation, Wooten admitted to officers that he caught the shark but denied he had punched it.