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Great White Shark Fisherman: "I Didn't Know What Was at the End of the Hook."
Screenshot (YouTube)
Now that he could be facing charges, the fisherman who reeled in a great white shark off the coast of Huntington Beach has to do something no fisherman wants to do: downplay his catch.
The fisherman, Michael Castillo, is now saying that he had no idea that he was reeling in a protected species.
"I was nervous, excited," Castillo told NBC Los Angeles. "I didn't know what was at the end of the hook."
Castillo points out that even a warden from the Department of Fish and Game thought that it was a mako shark at first. The officer took a few of the shark teeth and looked it up in a book. A few hours later he realized his mistake, and Castillo had to hand over his catch.
He posted bloody footage of the catch to in a YouTube titled "MAKO OR WHITE SHARK IN HUNTINGTON BEACH PIER????".
Castillo's ignorance may not help his case, according to Belmont Shores-Naples Patch:
The most common defense in these kinds of cases is that the angler didn’t know that the fish in question was protected. Ignorance of the law is a very poor defense as it is every angler’s responsibility to know what he can and cannot keep from our precious seas.
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Authorities from the Fish and Game Department are still collecting evidence for the Orange County DA.
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