The No. 2 Duke Blue Devils play against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in a college basketball game tonight. The matchup will begin at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN. Fans can watch this game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
The Blue Devils enter this matchup with a 26-3 record, and they have a 17-1 record in conference play. Notably, the team has won six consecutive games.
In their most recent game, the Blue Devils defeated Florida State 100-65. During the victory, four Duke players scored double-digit points: Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel, and Isaiah Evans.
Flagg will be a key player to watch this evening, as he leads the team in points and assists.
The Demon Deacons enter this matchup with a 20-9 record, and they are coming off a 74-71 win against Notre Dame.
In order to win tonight, the Demon Deacons will need to rely on their guard Hunter Sallis. He leads the team in scoring, as he averages nearly 19 points per game.
Fans can watch this college basketball game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
One of the fastest-growing grocery chains in the U.S. plans to open more than 225 new stores in the coming year, a move that marks the biggest surge in 50 years.
Discount chain ALDI announced new locations ,will come through “organic growth” and converting select Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores to the new ALDI format. In total, ALDI will convert some 220 Southeastern Grocers locations to its format through 2027.
“When we announced our acquisition of Southeastern Grocers, we shared that we intended for a meaningful number of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets to continue to operate, and we’re delivering on that promise while also supporting ALDI growth,” ALDI CEO Jason Hart said. “Converting the remaining locations to the ALDI format is critically important to our nationwide commitment to help shoppers fill their carts with quality groceries for less.”
As part of its plans, Aldi also sold some 170 former Southeastern Grocery stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers with locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Winn-Dixie’s liquor store business is also being sold.
Grand openings planned
Grand openings for the first several converted Southeastern Grocer stores are already underway with approximately 100 converted locations reopening as ALDI stores by the end of 2025. A portion of the stores will be located in the Southeast with other growth coming in the northeast and Midwest regions, as well as more stores in Southern California and Arizona. ALDI is also eying new cities, including Las Vegas.
ALDI opened 120 stores last year, bringing its total count to 2,400.
This rustic cabin on Inland Lake in Blount County was valued at $79,000. In 2024 was bought by the Birmingham Water Works Board for $450,000. The utility continues to acquire cabins along the watershed.Birmingham Water Works
The Birmingham Water Works Board is spending $795,000 to buy three cabins along the banks of Inland Lake in Blount County that they plan to abandon.
The price for the group of three rustic buildings in rural Blount County at a flat rate of $265,000 per cabin is significantly lower than recentpurchases.
The water works board has the first option to buy and reclaim the contracts when they are put up for sale.
To date, the utility has spent about $5 million for cabins over the last two decades.
The new flat fee for all new cabin sales ends the former process where the owners named their own price to sell the buildings. Those prices were not determined by appraisals, but rather by how much the cabin owner wanted.
That system sometimes led to outsized purchase prices that yielded heavy profits for the cabin owners at the expense of the public utility.
Inland Lake in Blount County is the largest water source for the Birmingham Water Works.Contributed file photo
“It could be a cost reduction because the price was going up,” General Manager Mac Underwood told AL.com. “People realized that the Birmingham Water Works wanted to purchase the cabin so they would be getting a high cost or high purchase price and they would expect us to pay that price.”
Cabin inhabitants own the actual buildings, which they pay property taxes on, but not the land. They pay the water works annually in a contract for the rights to the site, underlong-term land leases that began when the property belonged to the former Birmingham Industrial Water Board.
Under the agreements, owners use the cabins for recreation and pay a $1,800 annual fee for the lots and access to the boathouses and docks. Boat access is the only way to the properties.
The board at its last meeting Feb. 26 approved buying the buildings from Virginia Brengelman, James P. Barnhart and Gary Whited.
There are about 43 cabins on the site. The water works now owns 22, and 21 remain in private hands.
“We’re going to continue to purchase them until they are all gone,” Underwood said. “Anything that sells at Inland Lake we’re going to offer $265,000 for it and hopefully we can get the cabins purchased and off the lake for that price.”
Origins of the agreement go back decades. The cabin owners also have the right to sell or bequeath their agreements to heirs.
The Water Works about 30 years ago acquired both Inland Lake and Lake Purdy when it acquired the former Industrial Water Works Board in 1994.
The board in the early 2000s then established a policy of reclaiming the cabins under the premise of protecting the watershed from possible contamination.
“We’re really concerned about the septic system because this is around an area with no infrastructure,” Underwood said. “If the septic system fails, then it could cause harm to the water supply. The main thing is to stop the septic use.”
Board members in the past have acknowledged the price to reclaim the Inland Lake cabins was expensive, but said they had no other choice if they wanted to secure the area.
The program began under the leadership of former longtime water board chairman Anthony Barnes in the early 2000s.
Barnes, who died in 2015, called the old cabin agreements outrageous, even though he advocated buying the buildings and keeping people off the lake.
Barnes at the time told The Birmingham News that in addition to securing the watershed, he had a philosophical objection to a select group of people having exclusive use of private cabins that sit on public property.
‘’We’re paying for something that we own essentially,” he told The Birmingham News in 2005.
Underwood said the utility is committed to protecting the watershed from unnecessary long term use and development.
“Depending on where they are, they are really left to go back to nature over time,” Underwood said regarding the structures. “The septic tanks will dry up and go back to nature.”
The New York Rangers play against the New York Islanders in an NHL game tonight. The matchup will begin at 6 p.m. CT on NHL Network. Fans can watch this game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
The Rangers enter this matchup with a 30-26-4 record, and they are coming off a 4-0 win against Nashville.
During the victory, Artemi Panarin led the Rangers offense. He ended the game with one goal and one assist, so he will try to perform similarly tonight.
Panarin leads the team in points and goals this season.
The Islanders enter this matchup with a 27-25-7 record, and they have won back-to-back games. In their most recent game, the Islanders defeated Nashville 7-4.
In order to keep their win streak alive this evening, the Islanders will need to rely on their star forward Anders Lee. He has 42 points and 23 goals this season, which leads the team.
Fans can watch this NHL game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
Wide receiver was one of Alabama football’s positions with the most change this offseason. Sure, at the top of the depth chart, Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard remained, but behind them, there was significant change.
The Tide lost a wave of talent to the transfer portal, with the likes of Kendrick Law, Emmanuel Henderson, Kobe Prentice and Caleb Odom all exiting. Alabama added names too, most notably Isaiah Horton, who joined the Crimson Tide after starting his career at Miami.
DeBoer was asked about the position after UA’s first spring practice on Monday. He noted that the group got taller.
“It’s a room that got longer,” DeBoer said. “Jalen Hale coming back, he was here, but just not with us because of his injury, Isaiah and even a young guy in Derek Meadows. The room in general when you look at them is longer, taller.
Hale missed the entire 2024 season with a leg injury. The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Texas native played in 13 games his freshman season in 2023.
Meadows, listed at 6-foot-5, 208 pounds, was a four-star prospect from Nevada.
Meanwhile, Horton, expected to make a push to be in the Crimson Tide’s starting lineup this season, impressed DeBoer during his first practice at Alabama.
“Just a lot of production,” DeBoer said. “He’s been out there. The lights aren’t going to be too bright for him. You can see just his focus in the phase of workouts that we had. It’s important to him. He came here for a reason because he wanted to be pushed. He wanted to be challenged. He wanted to come around here.
“He wasn’t scared of competition— some guys that are in the program like Germ and Ryan that had a lot of production themselves. He added to the room, and we’re excited about his personality, his attitude he brings. It’s been nothing but positive.”
Alabama continues spring practice through April 12, when the A-Day game is scheduled to be played at Bryant-Denny Stadium. A-Day will not be televised, but admission is free.
Pope Francis suffered two new acute respiratory crises Monday and was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation, in another setback to his battle to fight pneumonia, the Vatican said.
Doctors extracted “copious” amounts of mucus from his lungs during two bronchoscopies, in which a camera-tipped tube was sent down into his airways with a sucker at the tip to suction out fluid. The Vatican said the mucus was his body’s reaction to the original pneumonia infection and not a new infection, given laboratory tests don’t indicate any new bacteria.
Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel. The prognosis remained guarded. Doctors didn’t say if he remained in stable condition, though they referred to the crises in the past tense, suggesting they were over.
The crises were a new setback in what has become a more than two-week battle by the 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed, to overcome a complex respiratory infection.
Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episodes were more concerning than the last one on Friday, in which Francis had a coughing fit, inhaled some vomit that needed to be extracted and then was put on the noninvasive mechanical ventilation for a day and then didn’t need it anymore.
The use of bronchoscopies reflects a worrying level of mucus and phlegm in the lungs, Coleman said. “The fact that they had to go in there and remove it manually is concerning, because it means that he is not clearing the secretions on his own,” he said.
“He’s taking little steps forward and then steps back,” said Coleman, who is not involved in Francis’ care.
In a late update, the Vatican said the episodes were caused by a “significant accumulation” of mucus in his lungs and bronchial spasms. “Copious secretions,” were extracted during the bronchoscopies and the pope was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation, a mask that covers his nose and mouth and pumps oxygen into the lungs, the Vatican said.
Francis, who is not physically active, uses a wheelchair and is overweight, had been undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to try to improve his lung function. But the accumulation of the secretions in his lungs was a sign that he doesn’t have the muscle tone to cough vigorously enough to expel the fluid.
The Vatican hasn’t released any photos or videos of Francis since before he entered the hospital on Feb. 14 with a complex lung infection. This has become the longest absence of his 12-year papacy.
The Vatican has defended Francis’ decision to recover in peace and out of the public eye. But on Monday one of Francis’ closest friends at the Vatican, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, urged him to let his voice be heard, saying the world needs to hear it.
“We need men like him who are truly universal and not only one-sided,” Paglia said, speaking after a press conference to launch the annual assembly of his Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican’s bioethics academy, which has as this year’s theme “The End of the World?”
Francis wrote a message to the assembly in which he lamented that international organizations are increasingly ineffective to combat the threats facing the world and are being undermined by “short-sighted attitudes concerned with protecting particular and national interests.” It was dated Feb. 26 and signed “from Gemelli Polyclinic.”
Doctors often use noninvasive ventilation to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It’s not clear if he has provided any advance directives about the limits of his care if he declines or loses consciousness.
Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life.
Francis articulated that to a meeting of Paglia’s bioethics body in 2017, saying there was “no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy.” He added: “It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of ‘overzealous treatment.’”
Paglia, whose office helps articulate the Catholic Church’s position on end-of-life care, said Francis is like any other Catholic and would follow church teaching if it came to that.
“Today the pope is giving us an extraordinary teaching on fragility,” he added. “Today the pope, not through words but with his body, is reminding all of us, we elderly people to begin with, that we are all fragile and therefore we need to take care of each other.”
Francis’ 17-night hospitalization is by no means reaching the papal record that was set during St. John Paul II’s numerous lengthy hospitalizations over a quarter century. The longest single hospitalization occurred in 1981, when John Paul spent 55 days in Gemelli for a minor operation and then a long infection that followed.
Troy guard Tayton Conerway is the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, the league office announced Monday.
Conerway, a 6-foot-3 senior from Burleson, Texas, leads the Sun Belt in steals per game (3.0) and ranks third in assists (5.1 per game) while also averaging a team-best 13.7 points and 4.3 rebounds (tied for second on the team). He is the first Trojan named Sun Belt Player of the Year, and first conference player of the year since Greg Davis in 2004, when Troy was a member of the Atlantic Sun.
“Tayton is extremely deserving of this honor,” Troy coach Scott Cross said. “He is an absolute stat sheet stuffer with points, rebounds, assists and steals, while shooting high percentages across the board. He is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses and I am glad that he is on our side this week as we travel down to Pensacola, because I would have an extremely difficult time trying to figure out how to defend him.”
Conerway is also a first-team All-Sun Belt pick, joined by South Alabama’s Barry Dunning, James Madison’s Mark Freeman, Arkansas State’s Taryn Todd and Appalachian State’s Myles Tate. Freeman, a Morehead State transfer, was also selected as Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year.
James Madison’s Bryce Lindsay was named both Sixth Man and Freshman of the Year. Other individual award-winners were Marshall’s Obinna Anochili-Killen (Defensive Player of the Year) and South Alabama’s Richie Riley (Joe Gottfried Coach of the Year).
Conerway helped Troy finish the regular season at 20-10 overall and 13-5 in Sun Belt play, part of a four-way tie for first with South Alabama, Arkansas State and James Madison. The Trojans are the No. 3 seed for the Sun Belt tournament, which begins Tuesday in Pensacola, Fla.
Troy gets a bye all the way to the Sun Belt quarterfinals and play its first tournament game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against a to-be-determined opponent.
The full list of 2024-25 Sun Belt Conference postseason men’s basketball awards and all-conference teams:
Individual awards
Player of the Year: Tayton Conerway, Troy
Defensive Player of the Year: Obinna Anochili-Killen, Marshall
Sixth Man of the Year: Bryce Lindsay, James Madison
Newcomer of the Year: Mark Freeman, James Madison
Freshman of the Year: Bryce Lindsay, James Madison
South Alabama’s Richie Riley is Sun Belt Conference Joe Gottfried Coach of the Year in men’s basketball, the league office announced Monday.
Riley led the Jaguars to a 21-10 overall record and finished tied for first in the Sun Belt with a 13-5 conference record, claiming a share of the league championship for the first time since 2008. South Alabama will be the No. 1 seed for the Sun Belt tournament, which begins Tuesday in Pensacola, Fla.
Coming off a 16-16 finish a year ago, South Alabama was picked to finish 11th in the Sun Belt by league coaches in the preseason. However, the Jaguars won their first four Sun Belt games and seven of their final eight to finish tied with Arkansas State, James Madison and Troy — who were picked 1-2-3 in the preseason — in the final regular-season standings.
The 42-year-old Riley is 131-93 in seven seasons at South Alabama, which had endured five straight losing seasons prior to his arrival in 2018. He was Southland Conference Coach of the Year that year, when he led Nicholls to a 21-11 record and the regular-season league championship.
Riley is South Alabama’s first Sun Belt Coach of the Year in men’s basketball since Ronnie Arrow in 2007-08. Arrow also won the award — named for longtime USA athletics director Joe Gottfried — in 1988-89 and 1990-91, with Cliff Ellis (1978-79), Bob Weltlich (1999-2000) and John Pelphrey (2005-06) also claiming the honor.
In addition to Riley’s honor, junior forward Barry Dunning was named a first-team all-conference selection. The Mobile native — who transferred in from UAB — leads the Jaguars in scoring (14.7 points per game) and rebounding (7.0 per game), and had the two highest single-game point totals in the Sun Belt this year — 46 points vs. Texas State on Feb. 22 and 34 (also vs. the Bobcats) on Feb. 15.
Dunning is joined on the first team by Troy’s Tayton Conerway, James Madison’s Mark Freeman, Arkansas State’s Taryn Todd and Appalachian State’s Myles Tate. Conerway was selected as Sun Belt Player of the Year.
James Madison’s Bryce Lindsay was named both Sixth Man and Freshman of the Year. Other individual award-winners were Freeman (Newcomer of the Year) and Marshall’s Obinna Anochili-Killen (Defensive Player of the Year).
South Alabama guard Myles Corey picked up third-team All-Sun Belt honors. The graduate transfer from Ontario, Calif., averages 13.8 points and a team-best 4.4 assists per game.
South Alabama (21-10 overall, 13-5 Sun Belt) has a bye all the way to the semifinal round of the conference tournament, which begins Tuesday in Pensacola, Fla. The Jaguars will play their first game against a to-be-determined opponent at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The full list of 2024-25 Sun Belt Conference postseason men’s basketball awards and all-conference teams:
Individual awards
Player of the Year: Tayton Conerway, Troy
Defensive Player of the Year: Obinna Anochili-Killen, Marshall
Sixth Man of the Year: Bryce Lindsay, James Madison
Newcomer of the Year: Mark Freeman, James Madison
Freshman of the Year: Bryce Lindsay, James Madison
Joe Gottfried Coach of the Year: Richie Riley, South Alabama
It’s a strange time for spring football. At Alabama and across the sport, the upcoming transfer portal window has made the annual practices seem less useful, given how much rosters can shift between spring and fall.
Still, Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide have goals. After UA opened spring ball on Monday, the head coach was asked what a successful spring would look like.
“I think it’s always about just continuing to climb, continue to have progress,” DeBoer said. “Challenged the guys out there. You’re either getting better or getting worse. That’s individually. That’s us collectively. It’s your side of the ball. And so I think that’s a good starting point is which direction did you go? And I expect a great attitude. Energy, effort, all that, it’s always going to be that Practice 1, and I expect that every single practice.
“ But there are some times where a guy maybe is coming back from injury or a rep that didn’t go as well. We’ve gotta pick each other up. And that’s, to me, it’s either you’re going up or you’re going down. That’s what I’m always gonna gauge it by. Because in the end goal, it’s to be our best and do your best individually.”
Alabama is dealing with a laundry list of injuries to begin spring practice. Domani Jackson, Deontae Lawson, Danny Lewis and Keon Sabb are among those who are out and Justin Jefferson, Kadyn Proctor, James Smith will be limited.
DeBoer said the absences could be good opportunities for younger members of the team to gain experience.
“With the list, yeah, there’s a lot of guys that are returners and upperclassmen, so yeah, there’s a chance to build some depth with our guys and get some younger guys a lot of reps,” DeBoer said.
Alabama has a ways to go this spring. Practices continue through April 12, when the Tide will play a “modified” A-Day game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
After the first practice though, DeBoer said things were going well.
“It comes and goes fast,” DeBoer said. “Guys did a nice job, workmanlike mentality. Just out there doing what they can, I think, just like they have been the first 6-7 weeks of training. Doing what they can to be their best and bring others with them. Good leadership, accountability from just requiring the maximum effort, maximum strain. And I liked what I saw.”
Alabama could be diving headfirst into uncharted waters, aiming to become the first state in the nation to implement a localized shark alert system.
Spurred by the near-fatal shark attack of Alabama teenager Lulu Gribbin off a Florida beach last summer, one state lawmaker wants to create a system to warn beachgoers when sharks pose an imminent danger.
While federal efforts are led by Alabama’s U.S. Sen. Katie Britt for a nationwide system, state Rep. David Faulkner wants Alabama to lead the charge with a plan tailored for its own coastline.
“It’s something I would hope Alabama will be a leader on and that Florida would just take up,” Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, said. “We believe that professionals can help determine when a notification is necessary.”
But as Alabama lawmakers push forward, concerns are surfacing from coastal officials and marine scientists who warn that an alert system could create unnecessary fear, potentially impacting tourism and public perception of sharks in their natural habitat.
Initial concerns
Republican State Rep. David Faulkner speaks on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at the State House in Montgomery, Ala. (John Sharp/[email protected]).
Faulkner is working with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on HB198, which was introduced Feb. 5. The bill will be replaced by a revised version within the next two weeks, Faulkner said. The initial bill stirred pushback in the coastal region.
Under the original HB198, an alert system would be activated whenever there was a report of a shark being spotted close to a shoreline and would be believed to be posing “an imminent danger” to anyone.
“The issue is there are sharks in the water all the time,” said Sean Powers, director of the University of South Alabama’s Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences and a senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. “How do you get an effective system that warns potential swimmers but then doesn’t just go off all the time, which it would? It might have negative consequences for tourism.”
He added, “Trying to figure out where you can make a system like that informative and not just scare the public and scare tourists is going to be a challenge.”
Melvin Shepherd, chief of staff with the Gulf Shores Fire Rescue, said it’s not uncommon to spot dozens of sharks whenever flying above the beaches aboard a helicopter. But he said shark bite occurrences remain low, and what’s needed is education for the public about sharks.
“Tourists see dolphins and think it’s a shark,” Shepherd said. “We have to have a discussion on the best way to educate people.”
“In no way are we lessening the trauma and the injuries of the few people who have been bitten and attacked by sharks,” Powers said. “It’s a life-altering injury in many cases. But trying to find something to balance it and the very, very infrequent occurrences … it’s a tricky thing.”
Gribbin’s attack
Faulkner said a state administered alert system is worth exploring given the facts surrounding Gribbin’s near fatal encounter with a shark off Rosemary Beach in Florida, about 100 miles east of the Alabama state line.
The attack occurred on June 7, 2024, and was less than two hours after another shark attack happened a few miles away.
“Lulu lost her entire right leg and left hand for doing what? For being in 3 feet of water off a beach in Florida,” Faulkner said. “Enough people will say, ‘well, that’s where sharks live.’ But what really got me about Lulu’s attack is that it occurred about an hour before another attack at a different location.”
He isn’t alone in his concerns. In an Op-Ed to AL.com in September, Dr. Ryan Forbess of Orange Beach, who attended to Gribbins after she was attacked, said he was “shocked” to learn there was no alert system to keep beach-goers aware of a shark attack.
Lulu Gribbin, a 15-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who survived a shark attack, continues rehabbing from her injuries.Photo courtesy Ann Blair Gribbin
Britt, in a statement to AL.com last week, said she is planning to reintroduce Lulu’s Law during the current congressional term.
“Lulu Gribbin is an inspiration and a model of grit, grace, and faithfulness,” Britt said. “I will continue to fight to get Lulu’s Law enacted into law to help keep beach-going families safe.”
Revising legislation
The purple shark flag flies at all Cape Cod beaches to alert visitors that sharks live in the ocean.
The details about Alabama’s version could include a mix of system similar to Amber Alerts or revisions to beach flags. Typically, a purple flag flown at Alabama’s beaches warn beachgoers about marine pests found within the waters. Those alerts are commonly associated with jellyfish and stingrays but not sharks or other animals.
In Cape Cod, Mass., a purple flag with a white outline of a shark is flown at all times. Once a shark is spotted, a black flag goes up, which alerts swimmers and beachgoers that sharks are in the water.
Faulkner said he will discuss the details of the revised legislation further once it is released. He said he is hopeful that it will get a hearing in the legislature this spring, and a vote on the House and Senate floors.
“We can’t keep saying, ‘Well, this is where the sharks live,’” Faulkner said. “But is it wrong for us to use our brains and the technology we have today to try to keep people safe? There is no way we can give people 100 percent safety when they get into the waters at our beautiful beaches. But instead of saying ‘you can’t do that so you shouldn’t even try,’ … it’s not the way I think.”
Chris Blankenship, the commissioner of ADCNR, said the idea could include incorporating a new beach flag and phone alert system.
“It would be something on a phone that works with the (emergency management agencies) in Mobile and Baldwin counties that you are geofencing, and it wouldn’t be a statewide or nationwide (alert),” Blankenship said. “We’re working with (Faulkner) on something that will be beneficial to the public.”
The initial legislation did not have any Mobile or Baldwin counties co-sponsor, though Faulkner said it’s likely he will reach out to the coastal delegation for support once the newer version is released.
State Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, who represents coastal Baldwin County, said he is willing to work with Faulkner and others on the bill, but has concerns similar to Powers and others.
“I have tremendous respect for (Faulkner) and the commissioner, and I see where they are coming from, but I see implementation difficulties,” Elliott said.
Federal protections
Sean Powers, director of the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Alabama, speaks during a news conference on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at the university’s administrative building in Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/[email protected]).
Powers, however, said he hopes lawmakers will reach out to him and other marine scientists to assist in crafting an alert system that is effective.
He said the most momentum for shark-related legislation has been with the federal Supporting the Health of Aquatic systems through Research, Knowledge, and Enhanced Dialogue (SHARKED) Act.
That act, which passed the U.S. House in January, establishes a task force to work with fisheries management groups to address problems associated by increased shark depredation – the partial or complete removal of a hooked fish by a shark directly from an angler’s line before the line can be retrieved. The SHARKED Act has the support of sportfishing groups, and coastal conservation agencies.
“We know sharks are increasing in population and that’s by design,” Powers said, alluding to all-time low populations in the 1980s that have been recovering since. “The question is ‘are we there yet?’ as a shark population is rebuilt to where they should be. Is it time for regulations (against) harvesting sharks to relax? There is nothing more demoralizing for a fisherman fighting a 180-pound tuna for two hours to come back with only the head at the end.”
