Jennifer Schmidt Quoted in Washington Post Article About Fishermen Who Caught 1,379-Pound Shark
Jennifer Schmidt, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UIC, was quoted in a Washington Post article entitled “‘What a Waste’: Outrage Swells After Sport Fishermen Kill a 1,379-Pound Tiger Shark. The article details a recent incident in which three Australian men drew both positive and negative feedback for catching the shark, whose size made it a potential world record for the men.
“ Jennifer Schmidt, director of genetic studies at the U.S.-based Shark Research Institute, said sharks' breeding populations need to be protected.
‘Big, mature animals should be breeding; it takes a long time for the bigger sharks to mature — depending on the species 10, 15, 20 years before they’re able to breed,’ said Schmidt, an associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. ‘Taking out a big breeding-age fish like this one is unfortunate because it could have helped replenish tiger shark populations.’ ”
To read the full article, visit the Washington Post site here.