Discover Jessie James' sharks

smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
Does anybody watch that Monster Garage show on the Discovery Channel that features Jessie James and his custom-motorcycle-building shop West Coast Choppers? He has gained a lot of fame recently and is known for his bad boy attitude.
I was watching a documentary about Jessie on Discovery yesterday, and it showed this huge shark tank, which I believe is kept at the shop and in the triple-digits of gallons. It has two large bull sharks and what looks like a few much smaller fish. It appears to have an aluminum or steel frame; he probably made it himself.
Anyway... Jessie gloated with a smirk that he used to have $3,000 of fish in the tank, but duh, the sharks ate them all. Then he said the only thing he regretted about it was not being there to see it happen! It was a "ha, ha," kind of thing.
Don't you think that not only is that stupid of this guy, but irresponsible of the Discovery Channel as well? They're supposed to be a responsible educational channel and they allow for the glorification of this.
:mad:
 
karajay

karajay

Active Member
I just caught a glimpse of it the other day while I was surfin'. Watched him dump some feeder goldfish in there. Won't sharks die eventually if that's all they eat anyway? :(
 
terminus est

terminus est

Member
I agree with all of that. Did I read right that he has a couple bullsharks? Like the man-eater bullsharks that are possibly responsible for more human kills than great whites? Those things get huge, what are these babies? You would need a several thousand or more tank just to keep one. This guy is a crackhead. I hope one of the bulls bites his arm off while he feeds them.
 
aggie05

aggie05

Member
THey aren't bullsharks, they are blacktips and there are two of them in the tank. But it is still too small for them. I am guessing probably around 500 gallons and not the right dimensions for a shark. Yes he did dump feeders in for his little boy to watch, but I doubt he cares for the tank on his own. I am sure that he pays someone to take care of it and they probably doa better job than he does.
By the way, that documentary is over 2 years old now. Those sharks are probably no longer in the tank.
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
I'm sorry for miss-identifying the species as bull sharks, but they didn't show it very long. TV can blow size proportions out of perspective. The tank was too small, I know that for sure. And feeding $3,000 worth of exotic fish to sharks and painting it as cool is wrong, I know that for sure.
I saw a more updated documentary on Jessie James, and though it showed West Coast Choppers, it didn't show the shark tank. So you’re probably right Aggie, he no longer has them, which steams me even more.
:mad:
What are you doing buying "pets" like this when you don't intend on keeping them their lifespan? Maybe he moved them to his house and still has them, or sold them to another chump, who knows? I don't. But he still screwed that one up, and Discovery continues to air this irresponsibility.
Jessie, the one in a million chance you're reading this, I apologize, because if you're so responsible as to read this message board, then you might not currently be the bad fish keeper I've painted you as. I doubt it though. And if anyone writes back claiming to be Jessie as a joke, I won't believe you one bit anyway! LOL!
PS- By the way, I'm otherwise a fan of the guy. I love his shows and custom vehicles. :D
 
legend

legend

Member
i thought that rocked....i think it was 5000 worth of fish. I could be wrong though.
That tank looked a little to small for those two guys.
 
C

cowbuoy

Guest
And feeding $3,000 worth of exotic fish to sharks and painting it as cool is wrong, I know that for sure.
Why is this wrong?
Are expensive fish somehow more worthy of life than 10 cent feeder goldfish? -- or inexpensive damsels or clownfish??
If someone wants to waste their money....... - (as least as I see it - it is a waste of money but ........)
In the ocean I suppose sharks don't give a shot what they eat - fish is fish to them. Although they must have preferences I bet if they are hungry they don't care
Is it more humane to eat chicken than prime rib because it's cheaper?
Or should people in Maine only eat lobster and people in Oklahoma only eat beef, etc -- cause it's cheaper there
Heck - where they catch these fish and sell them to us I bet it is cheaper to eat some exotic LFS fish than to have a steak dinner
note - I am NOT going into the tank size
and I am not going to reply to any PETA wackos that blow buildings and people up
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
There's flaws in your logic.
These are wild-caught fish that are disappearing from the wild. Who gives a damn about the money? I don't, and obviously neither did Jessie. I care that people think they can take what they want from Mother Nature and wreck it as long as they can afford to do so.
Are you educated on the state of the world's environment, especially our reefs? The monetary value I’m using of those fish involved is just a sheer measure of exotic life he sacrificed. If Jessie wanted to throw that kind of cash out his custom hot rod's window, I would have just laughed at him.
Does this take care of the feeder goldfish/beef argument or am I shooting blanks here? Lobster are different. They're disappearing from the wild... stop eating them.
I may be hypocritical a bit by keeping my own fish, but at least I don't kill my pets. In the very least, he shouldn't have glorified it on a channel dedicated to responsible education.
And another thing... had those fish, including the sharks, been left in the wild and not artificially crammed into that little tank with nowhere to hide, most those fish wouldn't had fallen prey to the sharks. Smaller, more reef-oriented and colourful fish aren’t sharks preferred diet. Larger, more open-water type fish are, however.
The whole thing just messed up Mother Nature's code of fish and human conduct and contributed to the demise us humans are bringing to this planet. If you think that’s over-reacting, come back and tell me that 50 years from now, when even the Yellow tang is endangered in the wild. That's just a nano second of earth time.
:eek:
 
D

daniel411

Guest
Anyone try "Dolphin safe Tuna"? What about the tuna? ;) But I agree with smokinstarfish.
 
polarpooch

polarpooch

Active Member
I may be hypocritical a bit by keeping my own fish, but at least I don't kill my pets. In the very least, he shouldn't have glorified it on a channel dedicated to responsible education.
Yep. That's the word I'd have used. I'll bet nearly all of us on this board keep wild caught fish stolen from the reef. You know what they say about glass houses...
But it's overstatement at best that Jesse James (or any of us keeping wild caught fish in tiny little boxes) messed up "Mother Nature's code of fish and human conduct". (What, exactly IS the code anyway? ) Besides, do you think he kept expensive, rare, endangered fish in this tank as CHUM? Probably not.
And for the tank size, how many shark keepers on this board keep sharks in tanks that are too small for them to live in for life? ALL of them? Again, glass houses...
Should Discovery Channel have censored the documentary so as to not offend the sensitive marine fish keepers of the world? THAT'S responsbile education? Besides, how many upper middle class white 30-something people (Discovery Channel's basic demographic) are going to run out and get a shark tank with expensive rare, endangered fish for feeders because they watched the documentary on West Coast Choppers? NONE?
Let's all just get over ourselves here. In some ways we are all guilty of assaulting the oceans for our own pleasure. NONE of these fish we keep BELONG in fish tanks. Anything else we tell ourselves about it is just an excuse.
 
moraymike

moraymike

Member
Polarpooch:
That was very well said... It's a wonderful hobby. Let's try not to ruin it by judging our fellow hobbyists.
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
Yup...I've seen the show that had the shark tank in it....don't really want to comment on my opinion of his shark tank....but I gotta admit....I seriously want one of his bikes in my garage!!!!!:cool:
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
Even in the 21st Century, many people are plagued by ignorance.
Yeah, I called myself a hypocrite for the reason that nobody would have an easy time throwing it back in my face. But apparently that's not the case, as I live in a "glass house."
I have a Yellow tang and a Rhom piranha caught from the wild. These are the only two fish that were not captive-bred, I’m 99% sure. Total value is US $70. I've already stated that if any wild fish dies in my care, I'll force myself to donate 10X the retail price of the animal to WWF. That doesn't save me from being a hypocrite... it just makes me feel better.
Jessie did something much different, and if you don't see that, look again. This guy is no fellow fish hobbyist anyway. It's a fact that $3,000 of fish were eaten as of that documentary's date... not "chum". Who said anything about chum?
BUT FINE... for sake of argument, ok...
IT’S AN OK THING then to take two large sharks, cram them into a small tank, then take $3,000 worth of wild tropical fish and cram them in there too, joke/brag about it on Discovery that almost everything died, then huck the shark tank a few years later because it's too hard to look after.
Where does everybody else stand on this?
:confused:
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
Polarpoach, there is no such thing as a Code of Human-Fish Conduct, that's why I didn't capitalize this term in my pervious reference. It was a figure of speech... a term I made up to describe Mother Nature's set ways.
The balance of all the world's ecosystems is being disrupted by each and every one of us... some individuals more than others. Killing fish for entertainment only speeds up this process in an even more discussing way. At least in my tanks, and I'm assuming most everybody else's tanks, the fish STILL GET TO LIVE!!!
Not to mention, eventually we'll learn how to breed these fish in captivity and domesticate them, just like we did with most of FW. My Rhom pirhana lives a long, long time, and advances are already being made at zoos on breeding this type in captivity. The tank also is a perfect re-creatation of its natural environment.
You can't do that when you're feeding all your pets to your other pets because you unnaturally crammed them into a room together.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member

Originally posted by smokinstarfish
... I've already stated that if any wild fish dies in my care, I'll force myself to donate 10X the retail price of the animal to WWF.
:confused:
It's now the WWE...Vince changed it...;)
"Get ready to RUMBLE..."
:cool:
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
I meant of course, the World Wildlife Federation.
Are there any members of charitable organizations here?
I looked back at this post, and though I’m not trying to regurgitate my argument, I didn’t want to leave the gist of what I was trying to say over-shadowed by the image of a World Wrestling Federation star peeling out of West Coast on a Jessie James’ chopper, like most us thought, including me.
Don’t get me wrong. Discovery Channel Rocks 99.999% of the time!
:p
 
C

cowbuoy

Guest
ok
I am confused
how can you say - this guy did this thing wrong and then want one of his bikes
it is like you are suporting a habit you don't agree with
It seems that the money comes in here too
I bet none of us can afford one of his bikes (unless I sell my house)
but if you could - would you still buy one????
I suppose I can see how you would think his bikes are cool (which they are) but at the same time don't think what he does with expensive fish is responsible
but to actually want to buy one ??!!! In spite of your beliefs??
 
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