August 29, 2016 –The New York state governor, Andrew Cuomo, and his news anchor brother Chris have been criticised by conservationists and constituents after posing beside a threatened shark they killed on a fishing trip.
The governor tweeted two photos of himself and friends standing next to the bloodied shark as it hung from a marina-side gantry.
“Today’s catch: A 154.5-lb [70kg] Thresher shark off the south shore of Long Island,” Cuomo tweeted.
All three species of thresher shark are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because of their declining populations. Fishing for them is regulated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration but it is not illegal.
Despite its legality, the UN’s patron of the oceans, Lewis Pugh, said the killing and subsequent photos were “abhorrent” and worked against those trying to conserve dwindling shark numbers.
“The environment is the primary issue on the global agenda, so it is extraordinary that a senior politician could be so ignorant about it,” he said.