There is no secret that Florida is home to some strange animal encounters. There have been reports of Florida residents asking their car insurance companies to cover frozen iguana damage, US Postal Service employees have been greeted by alligator customers, and grazing cows have caused major turnpikes to close for a time. Nevertheless, Brian Waddill’s hammer attack on a shark has been one of the weirdest and cruelest animal encounters here.
During a fishing trip at Indian Harbour Beach’s Bicentennial Beach Park last December, nearby security cameras caught Waddill beating on the shark he just caught. The shark in question was a lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris), which the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed as a “vulnerable” species. A well-known species in the nearby Bahamas, they breed at specific nursery sites and return to these areas frequently. This species is often found in shallow subtropical waters, including Florida.
After hitting the beached shark several times with the hammer, the partially obscured footage shows Waddill dragging it on the beach for a short time before returning it to the sea. In support of the footage, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has collected testimonies from those nearby when the incident happened. According to the FWC report, the shark was presumed dead by witnesses. In addition to beating the shark, witnesses said he turned it on its side and “used the claw portion of the hammer to rip out the shark’s gills.” In contrast, Waddill admitted to the responding officer that he applied “blunt force trauma to the shark’s head.”
Waddill also told the responding officer the shark he allegedly beat was a blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus) which falls under FWC’s “retainable sharks with no minimum size limit” category. A Florida fisheries biologist, however, confirmed that the animal was a lemon shark after reviewing the footage. Several misdemeanor charges were filed against Waddill in February, including failure to return a prohibited species unharmed and violating laws against the harvesting, landing, and selling of sharks. But authorities only arrested Waddill after he failed to respond to his court summons, according to FOX News. It’s illegal to harvest lemon sharks anywhere in Florida state waters – they’re protected species. In fact, lemon sharks are just one of 28 species protected by the Sunshine State; other species include tiger sharks (Galeocerdo genus), mako sharks (both Isurus species), whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), and white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias).
The first offense of intentionally killing or injuring any fish or wildlife species the FWC deems “of special concern” carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a fine of $500. And while Waddill was released from jail recently on his own recognizance, according to Click Orlando, an anonymous source believes he will be made an example of.