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I used to work in charter deep sea fishing, and did some commercial fishing as well (SW FL). I did a haul on a shark boat for a little bit. We kept and processed every part of the animal. The body "meat" sold for around $.10-.15/lb and the fins would go for $18-20/lb....it's all driven by the Asian market. No finning for us...we'd all seen what the Japanese have done to the waters. It is estimated that the shark population is 10% of what it was 50 years ago. Thus, the quotas are rather low and the "season" lasts briefly (couple weeks a year if I remember correctly). It's hard, back breaking work that puts you through 20 hour shifts then a 3 hour nap and back out for another 20 hours, and it almost always leaves you bleeding.

Aside from all of that, it was a pretty fun job if you're an adrenaline junkie...it's an odd feeling to be knee-deep in sharks and pulling more in the boat....jumping over and tripping on 12 foot long sharks to get another one in the boat. I only did one trip, as grouper work came back around, but I don't know if I would of continued to do it. One can only get bit by a shark so many times before you realize you need to stop screwing with them so much.