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He has even lead the way in introducing new species of small coastal sharks into the aquarium industry. In the 1990's he pushed for the embracing of Sharpnose sharks and recently, Mini-bulls. In addition to the shall species, he has demonstrated his abilities with the large ones. Ken was the first collector to transport and keep a hammerhead for display in America.
His record of standing behind the animals he collects and delivers has made a name with his customers and researchers alike. Ken understands the importance of quality animals and quality handling. He insists on our live arrival guarantee. In the 2007 season we had zero infections and no parasitic issues. This is due in part to the volume of sharks available and Ken's eye for picking the best of the catch for retention. Ken does not handle or collect sharks with notable parasites or deformities. He picks the best and healthiest specimens. When collecting pups, he targets healthier pups with more girth. Runts and sickly looking animals are released. Having begun his college career as a marine biology major, he understands the basics of genetics and breeding as well as shark physiology. He looks for fish that have the highest probability of survival.
Ken has no problem catching sharks in season (though weird length and size/sex requests are not recommended). Therefore, you do not get the only shark he could catch. You get a shark picked out of the total catch that looked the best of that day. The sharks that do not look happy in the confines of the transport tanks in the boat are released and not landed. Then, the shark is placed in quarantine until it adapts to the aquarium, feeds and defecates. If any problem or potential problem is noticed, the shark is released rather than sold. There are too many other sharks in the ocean to sell a shark that does not appear to be adapting well to captive life.
He also minimizes the stress to the animals as much as possible. He avoids damaging the sharks during collection and transportation. His special training and experience provides him a keen sense of how his sharks are doing during handling. Even researchers rely on his ability to sense the viability of a shark during handling (this is very important when using expensive tracking tags). They know that he can usually tell if an animal is not doing well or is not likely to survive the collection process. This ability is not a skill learned simply from fishing.
As for Sharks Unlimited, Inc, the company began supplying shark related souvenirs and products as a sideline of our collectors work with sharks. The company began selling live sharks and aiding in shark research as demand grew. As the demand for sharks waned for a while, the company halted collection for some time, but, has returned by client demand for quality live sharks. The company was incorporated in South Carolina in 2002.
Since that time, Sharks Unlimited, Inc, has supplied live sharks, reptiles, insects, crabs, fish and mollusks for private and public aquarists in the Europe, the US, Puerto Rico and Canada. Our sharks grace European and American Aquaria.
Most importantly is our environmental footprint, or lack thereof. We have strived over the years to minimize our impact on the environment as much as is possible. We have few if any losses during a year of operation. We take as few fish as possible. We do not stock a large volume of sharks that have not been ordered! We challenge the federal and state resource management departments constantly to rework their regulations in a way to help us reduce our take and the overall impact of fishing on the wild stocks of fish in South Carolina and the USA. We specifically collect and recommend sizes and species of fish that have good populations in a way to preserve the current stocks. We have a large capacity to provide big displays, all with a footprint that has NO negative impact on the environment.
We do not list our addresses on this site as we do not offer a show room at this time. We will be posting our shark tank cam shortly. To place an order, follow the procedures outlined on this site. If you do not, we will not deal with you.