{"id":109648,"date":"2025-05-17T18:12:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T18:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/109648\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T18:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T18:12:21","slug":"im-a-real-life-shark-hunter-ive-reeled-in-164-stone-beasts-and-seen-my-crew-mauled-but-some-say-im-the-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/109648\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a real life shark hunter \u2013 I’ve reeled in 164-stone beasts and seen my crew mauled…but some say I’m the monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARK “The Shark” Quartiano boasts that he can catch anything that swims – and judging by his monster trophies, he could be right.<\/p>\n

The master fisherman has seen bloody maulings and faced down fierce animal rights activists – but says nothing could stop him taking out thrill-seeking tourists.<\/p>\n

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Mark has an incredible collection of shark jawbonesCredit: Alamy\"Girl<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mark’s seven-year-old son is already a master fishermanCredit: Mark the Shark\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

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One of Mark’s happy customers with his humongous catchCredit: mark the shark\"Large<\/a><\/p>\n

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The sharks are hauled onto the boat aliveCredit: mark the shark\"Large<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hammerheads are one of the most common in Mark’s home patchCredit: Mark the Shark<\/p>\n

Mark has been reeling in big-beast sharks from the Miami Bay for 50 years – and claims to have caught more sharks than anyone else alive.<\/p>\n

He reckons he’s hauled 100,000 aboard his yacht, Striker-1, over the decades.<\/p>\n

People pay to be taken on extreme fishing trips where Mark helps them catch the “fish of their dreams”.<\/p>\n

Mark told The Sun that it’s not just midlife-crisis dads who come brave the waves.<\/p>\n

He often hosts stag dos and hen parties – and says it’s the girls who have the most fun reeling in whoppers.<\/p>\n

Mark says: “The girls go crazy for it – they love the big sharks. They’re allowed to drink onboard Striker-1 – we’re in the party capital of the world after all. As long as no one gets hurt.<\/p>\n

“I’m basically on baby-sitting duty the whole time. I always joke around that next year we\u2019ll be doing the divorce party.”<\/p>\n

He’s also welcomed the rich and famous aboard his boat – counting the likes of Robert De Niro and Will Smith among his happy customers.<\/p>\n

People head to sea with Mark for all sorts of different reasons. <\/p>\n

Some want to take home a huge trophy, while others just want to watch the experts tussle a giant hammerhead.<\/p>\n

But Mark is the man who makes it all happen. He has decades of experience, top of the range gear and a custom-built boat specialised for shark hunting.<\/p>\n

Mark has sparred with a ridiculous number of sharks, but each one presents a different challenge.<\/p>\n

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Mark uses the winch to hang up his catches and snap a picCredit: mark the shark\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

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The heaviest he’s ever reeled weighed over a tonneCredit: Mark the Shark\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

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Key to Mark’s success is his trusty Striker-1 yachtCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n

He says: “Some sharks bite a lot harder than others. We had a big bull shark just the other day, maybe 500lb, and she was on the line for a couple of hours. She really didn\u2019t wanna come into the boat at all.<\/p>\n

“But you have to expect a challenge – these are big sharks battling for their lives, and they have deep water on their side. But we always get ’em in the end.”<\/p>\n

One of his most intense showdowns came a few months ago when he spent more than six hours battling a great white.<\/p>\n

And the biggest fish he’s ever reeled was 2300lb – which is more than a tonne.<\/p>\n

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The likes of Will Smith and Robert De Niro have boarded his boatCredit: Alamy\"Captain<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mark donates some of his catches to homeless sheltersCredit: Instagram<\/p>\n

With sharks that big, it’s vital to know what you’re doing.<\/p>\n

And even with so many years of experience in the locker, accidents can still happen.<\/p>\n

Mark said: “We’ve had a few guests get bitten, usually because they stand too close to the sharks while they’re trying to get a picture.”<\/p>\n

The sharks are normally still alive when they join the crew onboard – so are still capable of chomping down.<\/p>\n

“We also had one member of the crew get bit pretty bad on the foot,” he said.<\/p>\n

To give him the edge over the beasts, Mark has kitted out Striker-1 with cutting-edge shark-wrangling gear.<\/p>\n

He says: “My boat is the only one on the seas with the world-famous fighting chair over the water. It’s been my trademark for over 40 years.<\/p>\n

“We can hoist any size shark into the boat using all our winches and block and tackles.”<\/p>\n

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The best sharks for eating are make, tiger, black-tip,Credit: Mark the Shark\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mark and Nick Hodgson celebrate after catching an 8ft hammerhead sharkCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Mark’s line of works doesn’t go down well with everyone – and he’s not exactly subtle about it.<\/p>\n

He reckons that “90 percent of people are on board with what we do”, with the rest made up of PETA disciples (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).<\/p>\n

“But even they’ve got used to me,” he says. “There’s not much they can say – especially with the donations I make.”<\/p>\n

Mark is adamant that the sharks he kills don’t go to waste, so donates anything he can to homeless shelters.<\/p>\n

He says: “I dropped a big shark off there just last night.<\/p>\n

“I take most of the sharks down to the shelters, especially if it’s one that’s good to eat. Best ones are mako, thresher, nurse, blacktip and tiger sharks.<\/p>\n

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“Shark tacos are really good, or it works well in a soup.”<\/p>\n

And he helps out with research – though admits it probably doesn’t stretch to conservation.<\/p>\n

“A few years back we started cutting the sharks open to see what was inside, and I’ve noticed a massive change. They never have any fish in their bellies these days, because there’s not enough left in the sea.<\/p>\n

“I try and help the scientists figure out how to keep some of these fish from going extinct.”<\/p>\n

Mark also sometimes get licences to catch endangered sharks.<\/p>\n

“But conservation? That’s a big word,” he says.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on a life at sea, Mark says: “Even though I’ve been doing this a long time, I still love it. We still love watching people catch the sharks and making memories for them.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve got people that still call me from 40 years ago and say they\u2019ll never forget the trip we took them on. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s great to see people having a good time, especially when no one even goes outside anymore. People only know how to sit inside and watch the TV. <\/p>\n

“But we do things a little different down here. We try to make people\u2019s trips really memorable and have a great time.”<\/p>\n

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18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARK “The Shark” Quartiano boasts that he can catch anything that swims – and judging by his monster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[933,897,70,184,934,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-109648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-section-newsworld-news","12":"tag-sharks","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114524530301914507","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}