‘Everyone loves cute seals, I want to save sharks’: Miss Maine USA contestant catches sharks and drags them ashore with her bare hands so their fins can be tagged
- Marisa Butler has caught and tagged 30 sandbar sharks this year, which she drags ashore with her bare hands
- The beauty queen volunteers with the NOAA, who are monitoring the species to save diminishing numbers
- Miss Butler hits the water twice a day around Nantucket and Florida to help with the shark tagging program
An American beauty queen has ditched make-up and fashion in favour of spending her free time saving sharks by dragging them with her bare hands to the shore to be tagged.
Miss Maine USA contestant Marisa Butler has caught and tagged nearly 30 sandbar sharks this year, despite only learning to fish in October 2014.
The 21-year-old volunteers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to monitor the species and hopes to tag 100 sharks this year.
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Miss Maine USA contestant Marisa Butler, who spends her spare time catching sharks and bringing them to the shore in order to tag them
The 21-year-old volunteers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to monitor the species and hopes to tag 100 sharks this year
The beauty queen only learned to fish in October 2014 but has so far caught 30 sharks this year to tag in order to monitor them
Miss Butler and a small team, including well known shark wrangler Elliot Sudal, hit the water twice a day around Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Florida to help with the program.
After reeling the sharks in using bait, the animals are dragged to shore so she can insert a small tag into the dorsal fin.
The hefty animals often weigh more than double Miss Butler with a record catch tipping the scales at 230lbs.
But Miss Butler, from Standish in Maine, said: 'Before I started fishing I never really thought about sharks.
'Everyone wants to save cute seals or puppies because they are cute and cuddly, they don't realise that sharks are important to save.
Miss Butler and a small team hit the water twice a day around Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Florida to help with the program
The hefty animals often weigh more than double Miss Butler with a record catch tipping the scales at 230lbs, so she sticks to catching the smaller animals
'It's incredible to work with them, you see how intelligent and strong they are - each one has a different personality.
'I hadn't even held a fishing rod before last October but my third catch was a reef shark, it was incredible.
'You hear the fishing reel screeching and you know you have one - it's a very surreal moment.
'Then you reel them into the surf and bring them onshore to tag them. We send the information to NOA who can track their migration.
Miss Maine USA admits that people are always shocked when she tells them of her unusual hobby catching sharks off the coast
Fortunately, she has never been injured by any of the sharks, although she was once slapped in the face by one of the animals, which she described as 'pretty funny'
'A lot of the sharks are too big for me so I get the little ones. These a big animals we are talking about, some are over 7ft.
'The biggest I caught was a female sandbar weighing 230lbs - it could have been a women's world record.'
Outside of her hobby Miss Butler, who spent a term studying economics at Kings College, London, works as events director for a retail brand Town Pool in Nantucket.
And she admits people are often shocked when they hear about her conservation work.
She added: 'People don't expect me to know what I'm doing because I am a girl.
Miss Butler competing in a beauty pageant. She is now in the running to be names Miss Maine USA, in her home state
Outside of her hobby Miss Butler, who spent a term studying economics at Kings College, London, works as events director for a retail brand Town Pool in Nantucket
'Guys come up to me and try and take the rod out of my hand. But I know what I am doing.
'Any shark can be dangerous but these sharks are pretty docile and tired by the time they are onshore.
It's the same with any group of animals or species or even humans you can get some that more aggressive, but you learn to read their body language.
'I've been slapped in the face by a shark tail which was pretty funny and because sharks are like sandpaper I often get shark burns which are red little rashes.'
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