US Man Accused Of Illegally Catching Sharks, Filming Himself 'Wrestling' Them

A 27-year-old Oregon man is facing criminal charges for illegally catching protected sharks in Washington's Puget Sound and posting bizarre videos of himself "wrestling" the animals on social media, the New York Post reported. The man, identified as Connor Seifert, is accused of pulling bluntnose sixgill and broadnose sevengill sharks from Puget Sound for months, despite state laws that prohibit targeting the species. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says it received at least 14 complaints about Seifert's activities before launching a months-long investigation.

In clips Seifert uploaded online, he can be seen prying open a shark's mouth while stepping on its back, and holding another shark by the tail as it thrashes out of the water. One video provided by authorities shows Seifert straddling a sixgill on shore with its gills exposed to air.

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Wildlife officers tracked Seifert's movements both in person and online for months, setting up surveillance to catch him in the act. He was arrested in Pierce County, Washington.

The department recently shared body camera footage of an officer confronting him in June. "You know your shark rules," as quoted by Fox News, the officer is heard telling Seifert. "You can't fully or partially remove a sixgill from the water. When you wrestle a sixgill to shore like that, you hop on its back, you expose its gills to the air."

"You know as well as anybody else does that Puget Sound is a nursery for these sharks. There has been a direct correlation between catching these sharks in this stage in their lives and the mortality of the pups inside the moms."

"Once they exhaust themselves being fought to shore, then all of their babies die. And then, sooner than you know it, you're not going to have sixgill and sevengill returning to Puget Sound anymore," he added.

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Why is it banned?

Fishing for sharks is banned in Puget Sound because the area serves as a nursery. Female sixgill and sevengill sharks travel into the Sound to give birth, and stress or exhaustion can kill both the adult and the pups inside her.

Seifert has been charged with nine counts of unlawful recreational fishing in the second degree, and one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant.

As per the report, he has pleaded not guilty.