Poll: Should 'Vulnerable' Species Like Thresher Sharks Be Thrown Back?

In an earlier story, we told you about at the 26th annual Shark Tournament at Star Island Yacht Club with their catch of a 422-pound thresher shark. The anglers brought in a $30,000 prize for their catch, along with an additional $5,000 for heaviest shark of the day, and $3,500 for being the heaviest shark in the "other" category. 

When we posted the story to Twitter, we had a follower say "please throw him back!"

Well, we can't. We didn't catch it, we just ran the story.

But we did some checking and found out the thresher is listed as a "vulnerable species" with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

Vulnerable is one step away from endangered on the IUCN "red list," which "provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on plants and animals that have been globally evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. This system is designed to determine the relative risk of extinction, and the main purpose of the IUCN Red List is to catalogue and highlight those plants and animals that are facing a higher risk of global extinction (i.e. those listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable)."

According to the marinebio.org site, the thresher is generally considered harmless to humans, is not common in American fish markets, and are mainly sought because they are fierce fighters who will battle relentlessly for their lives. They are known for their long and deadly tails, which the fish use to stun their enemies.

All members of genus Alopias, the thresher sharks, are listed as Vulnerable globally because of their declining populations. These downward trends are the result of a combination of slow life history characteristics, hence low capacity to recover from moderate levels of exploitation, and high levels of largely unmanaged and unreported mortality in target and bycatch fisheries.

That made us wonder, did this group of anglers do the right thing by reeling this thresher in for the contest? While there was no prohibition against it, it is listed as a vulnerable species. Did they set a bad example by keeping it?

On the other hand, will one less thresher make a difference?

What do you think? What would you do, if you caught it?