WWF slams Kammenos for photo with dead shark

The Greek branch of the wildlife group WWF said on Monday that the shark caught by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and friends on the weekend was protected under the law.

Kammenos, head of the junior coalition partner Independent Greeks, tweeted on Sunday a photo of himself and friends in a fishing boat with a shark they had caught.

“[Catching] the big sharks one by one,” tweeted Kammenos, seemingly in reference to crooked businessmen that the government says it would like to target.

However, WWF said that the species of shark pictured in the photo (bluntnose sixgill shark or Hexanchus griseus, also commonly referred to as the cow shark) is protected.

According to the non-governmental organization, there has never been a recorded attack by the specific species of shark against a person and that hunting it is banned in Greece under a 1981 law.

WWF said the picture of the minister was “shameful and showed no bravery” and displayed a disregard for the law, regardless of whether Kammenos and his friends had hunted the shark or if it got caught up in their nets.