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Food

Homeless People Are Eating Tiger Shark in Texas

A San Antonio angler brought in an 800-pound garbage-eater after battling with it for hours. But what does one do with a massive catch of shark meat? Feed it to the needy, of course.
Photo via Flickr user Kevin Bryant

It took Ryan Spring more than seven hours to reel the thing in.

The San Antonio-based angler was fishing with his father in the Gulf of Mexico when he hooked an 809-pound tiger shark. The 12-foot 7-inch shark managed to pull the boat for 15 miles before Spring was able to drag it back toward the shore. When Spring finally got there, he required the help of about a dozen men to heave the animal onto the dock.

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"I tried to get a tape measurement and measure it in the water that night," Spring told a local radio station. "I was too exhausted and the thing was thrashing around all over the place. It was kind of a shocker when I read the measurements."

But what does one do with a massive catch of shark meat? Feed it to the needy, of course.

About 75 pounds of the meat was donated to Timon's Ministries in Corpus Christi, where a volunteer cook reportedly breaded and then baked the shark steaks for about 90 homeless people.

Tiger shark's aren't known for especially tasty meat. (Fins are a whole 'nother story.) Like many species of sharks, they produce urea to help them maintain osmotic balance with seawater. When they die, their bodies start excreting that urea through the skin, which gives off strong ammonia odors and can taint the flavor of the meat with a top note of hot piss. (They go for that in Iceland, apparently.)

Beyond that, though, tiger sharks also have a reputation for being "garbage cans of the sea." Not only do they eat sea turtles, birds, and stingrays, they swallow non-food, too. Yes, yes. We all remember that scene from Jaws when Dr. Hooper pulls a Louisiana license plate out of the belly of the shark that very definitely didn't kill Mrs. Kintner's boy. In real life, though, unexploded munitions, a chicken coop, and an entire horse's head are just a few of the things that have been found in tiger shark's stomachs. Imagine that terroir.

This particular shark, however, was edible enough. Kae Berry, the executive director of the organization, told the San Antonio Express-News that those who ate it enjoyed it. The leftovers, Berry said, will be turned into shark stew.

And why the hell not? Overfishing has tipped tiger sharks into "near-threatened" territory, so you probably shouldn't go out and hunt one down yourself. In case you're wondering, tiger shark hunting is legal in Texas, but the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department notes that "[anglers] in Texas are allowed one shark per person per day with a two-shark possession limit." Spring reportedly caught seven sharks the day before he bagged the tiger, but released them all.

An 800-pound haul is still an 800-pound haul, though, and leaving it to the sea birds—or worse, Young British Artists—would be a mammoth waste.