Maggie’s Funny & awesome pics, vids and memes thread (work safe, no nudity)
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See them all the time on the Susquehanna river below Conowingo dam, there are at least two nesting pairs.
We make the trip to the Susquehanna River a couple of times each year. Reason? My wife loves Bald Eagles and I like taking pictures. We usually go right below the dam. The eagles like the trees on each side of the river and the power lines that go across the river. They are amazing to see when they splay out their wings to come in for a fish. They barely get their feet wet, just enough to grab the fish and then fly off.
I've seen them pick up quite a few fish doing exactly that. Never have my phone out to get a picture...I'm too busy fishing.
I live overlooking the Kiskiminetas River and we've got 2 nesting pairs just upriver from us. I get to see them on a weekly basis pretty much.
Have a camp near Tionesta and see em all the time up there too. Awesome birds to see! We get the occasional Golden eagle as well
We had more Golden Eagles than you could swing a dead cat at growing up in South Dakota...they were everywhere, but that was 30+ years ago now, not sure what the population is now.
We take an SLR camera with a large lens when we go. There are people there at the visitor center with $5-$8K lenses and they are there every weekend. The wife loves to do this, but I like going to Gloucester MA and whale watching. It's convenient. Drive to BWI airport, land in Boston 55 minutes later, get a rental car and drive to Gloucester, stay in the same hotel every time. Catch a ride on the same boat (7 Seas Whale Watching). Great folks too. There was a time we would do this for a day trip. Catch the early flight, drive to Gloucester, get on the boat for the after cruise and reverse the process and be home before 11pm.
Come on, the goliath grouper are big puppy dogs.
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I made the mistake of dropping into the water right next to him. He tried a quick escape and honestly, if that big assed tail had hit me, he would have busted me up against the boat.
^^^^^^^ that guy was right at 400lbs.
This one below was caught by Rebecca about 30 minutes earlier. Almost 7-1/2' long and right at 600lbs. It dwarfed the size of the one I caught.
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Maybe we were lucky on Loos Key
Boy, 10, has leg amputated by 8ft bull shark off Florida Keys
Jameson Reeder Jr was bitten by the massive bullshark on Saturday afternoon while observing the Looe Key ref, about five miles offshore. He is now recovering at Nicklaus hospital in Miami.
The Marine House in Geneva, HE was on the approach to the airport. We had a big field beside the house and I would see that daily.
They were so low seconds after passing you could here the air “vortex” after their passing.
I could usually sleep through the 0700 arrival.
Maybe we were lucky on Loos Key
Boy, 10, has leg amputated by 8ft bull shark off Florida Keys
Jameson Reeder Jr was bitten by the massive bullshark on Saturday afternoon while observing the Looe Key ref, about five miles offshore. He is now recovering at Nicklaus hospital in Miami.www.dailymail.co.uk
The stupid thing about me getting into the water wasn't the goliath.
The possibility of a very large bulk shark coming in because of the struggling fish was nearly certain.
I can't tell you how many times the man in the brown suit has taken grouper from us. They've even tried to take them while unhooking with the tail still in the water.
It's scary as fuck.
It never occurred to me how dangerous it was that day until I climbed back into the boat.
I've been a lot more cautious since then.
Then there was this trip tarpon fishing in Boca Grande back in April 2020.
Jim had hooked his third fish of the day and that's when we encountered the trio.
One was >10', and the other two were 8-9'.
The big one had grabbed at this guy but didn't get a good hold on him.
Notice the immediate bruising.
Got him landed without any other issues, so the immediate need was pics and release.
I took three more pics after this one and stood up to go around the console to help Jim unhook the fish.
I was putting my phone in my pocket and had reached for the grab rail as I passed by the controls.
That big motherfucker rammed the boat in his attempt to grab the tarpon again. If I hadn't been reaching for the rail, I would have been knocked into the water on the starboard side. Jim let go of the fish and popped up quicker than I've ever seen a human move.
Big boy missed again and the tarpon went out past the bow of the boat only to meet up with the smaller pair. 10 seconds later, they corralled the tarpon between the motor and the stern.
That was the end of it. Nothing but blood and fish parts.
It took quite a while for our heart rates to settle back down.
Some of the other boats around us stopped by to see if everything was okay because they had seen what the bull sharks did.
All I can say is,
Thank God for grab rails...
Very good story and well said.
My civilian dive instructor was fishing with spear guns with his buddy off the California coast during a very warm spell as a young man. They got some good catches and thought nothing about the struggling fish on their belts. He lost track of his buddy in the kelp forest for a bit and went looking for him. A great white had his buddy pinned on the sea floor. This was part of his lecture about how sharks don’t give a crap and even if you don’t send a lot of time turtlebacking they will go into the kelp forest and find you if they want you. Hiding in the rocks won’t work.
I’ve got a question. Can’t you just shoot the sharks? When I crewed fishing boats commercially in the late 80s we would be aggressive towards sea lions and sharks that interfered with us.
If your crew shot sea lions or seals you were violating Federal Law, MMPA 1972 and in serious trouble, if caught. I crewed on fishing boats and they were a PIA.
What if you brought a shovel with you…….
That kind of treatment of sharks ended decades ago.
In Florida and much of the Gulf and Atlantic, sharks are a game species now with very strict regulations on size limits, method of take and even specific handling requirements.
Here's a couple of screen shots:
I bear no ill feelings towards them or the goliath that constantly steal catches.
I love and totally respect watching nature do its thing.
Is it aggravating to lose a dozen keeper sized grouper or snapper in a day? Absolutely it is, but sharks and goliath gotta eat too. They are opportunistic feeders just like most fish.
Example:
This small gag grouper was eaten right as the fish was being lifted from the water.
Note the bite radius...
A couple of years ago I watched a guy hook into and fight a tarpon that easily broke the 200lb barrier. We stayed about 150 yards out (fishing is crowded and normal distance etiquette is different down here)
so we wouldn't be in the way during the fight. When he got it near the boat an extremely large hammerhead breached the surface with the tarpon in its mouth.
That was it. Over and done with. Blood was everywhere and the tarpon was gone. The hammerhead was big enough to consume the entire tarpon in its own.
It's a daily occurrence at Boca Grande and also along the north tip of Anna Maria Island at the mouth of Tampa bay.
BTW, if the FWC caught someone shooting at sharks, they would spend plenty of time in jail.
Just go to ewetoob and watch the idiots that dragged a shark behind their boat at 50mph. AFAIK, they are still in jail.
You can shoot sharks, while diving, that is legal in CA. Sharks are very sensitive about damage to their nose. If I was in the water and had a problem with a shark getting too close, I would try to hit or cut the nose. Next choice I would spear it through the gills. Last choice, if I had a sharp knife, is if it made a pass at me I would try and slit it's belly as it passed.
Are the sharks learning to exploit the fishing to eat kind of like bears around campgrounds and kills? If so I can see this becoming a big problem as the sharks get bigger and more aggressive.
Yep. On the commercial boat we carried shotguns and pistols to shoot larger catch before boating but not rifles for this reason. No one wanted even a hint of an issue with violating the law. Definitely a PIA when they take bites out of fifty fish in the net and ruin the catch.. but nothing said you could not harass them back. No season is complete without a sea lion caught in the net and dumped on the deck..
Sharks have been exploiting the food from fisherman for centuries. As all other animals interactions with humans through out history
Get you granny panties out of a wad.
I Kicked them in the nose as a young kid fishing the sand bars offshore in the Gulf. We’d be waist or chest deep and could see them coming. That was forty plus years ago. We rarely saw the behavior posted above. Seems like sharks are far more aggressive now.
^^^^^ 100000% correct.
6' Spinner sharks
Blacktips of all sizes.
10-12' Bull sharks
13'+ Hammerheads
Big Goliath grouper.
All of them do it.
What is hilarious is goliath eating sharks. Check Eeeewww-toob for grouper eats shark.
Interesting in that there have been studies some sharks, great whites in particular, will generally avoid kelp beds. They even fashion "shark deterrent" strips to mimic the appearance of kelp to keep sharks out but allow normal passage of other sea-life through.
Although with the right motivation:
There are a lot more sharks now because they aren't killing every one that's encountered.
Because of the high numbers, they have to be more aggressive or they don't survive. Or worse become something else's dinner.
The most awesome thing to witness is when all of the fish to include sharks dolphin and other predators have some sort of unspoken truce going on and they work together for hours on the bait balls.
Everything, from the spanish mackerel and up get into the mix.
I've actually stopped fishing for a couple of hours just to watch it.
Blew my mind the first time.
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I live on the east coast of FL and was born and raised here. Lived on the water for the majority of my life.
The shark problem started getting 100 times worse when these shark feeding outfits started doing multiple day trips for tourism. They go just out of state waters to do it, so it is legal. They are also rabid environmentalists. They got caught cutting a research boat's long-lines that was shark fishing for NOAA lol.
Sharks started associating feeding sessions with the sounds of boats. When you pull up on the ledge now you will have multiple sharks swimming around the boat within minutes. Getting anything you catch to the surface is a struggle. Once the sharks realize that if they hang around the fishing boats long enough, they will eventually bring food up too, the habit was only reinforced. They are becoming super aggressive too.
We used to spear cobia off the bull sharks when we were younger and dumber. No one really does it anymore... Many of us grew up and had kids. But also bc how aggressive the sharks have become.
I know, less talk more video... This isn't me, but it's some people I know and grew up with. Way better freedivers than I will ever be*
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After series of fatal shark attacks in Sharmel-Sheikh (Egypt) and recently an area just adjacent, as well as clusters in NC, there is always increased debate on the "why". "Humans aren't on the menu" - we'll usually not, but lately more so. But the chumming for tourists often come up as a big issue, esp. when chumming off piers or where people are snorkeling. Increase in water activities including spear fishing and sport-fishing, have also been blamed. Change in prey availability due to overfishing, algae growth with el nino cycles, and of course "climate change" all blamed too. What's interesting is how attracted they are just to certain electrical frequencies of boats- that's the theory why they sometimes nibble on motors & props as well as the Pavlovian response to "treats". But it does seem like there are more cases of "not much left of the victim" indicating they are predatory biting.
It's a more complex problem than people want to make it for sure.
Anyway... check this gem out.
