Of all the big fish stories Robert Requejo Ramos heard while out fishing, the one that caught his attention was about sharks.
Shark fishing, to be exact. Robert grew up on Miami Beach, going fishing with his family. But the Miami Beach of today is very different than the one of the 1970s and 1980s that he heard about. South Beach was a sleepy retirement town — except for the pier on the southern tip, dominated by shark fishermen.
They were a wild bunch. Territorial-like gangs. And the only thing they cared about … was catching the biggest shark. Robert tells the stories of these fishermen and this time in the film, South Beach Shark Club. It’s streaming now on Amazon’s Prime Video and other apps.
Robert uses colorful historical footage to recreate this time. He also interviews those fishermen decades later. We meet a cast of characters with names like Hammer, Seaweed and Seaweed Junior.
On the July 10 episode of Sundial, Requejo Ramos tells us about the evolution of shark fishing and how our culture views sharks.
On Sundial's previous episode, Marshall Davis Sr. joined us to talk about developing the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center into a hub for the community.
Listen to Sundial Monday through Thursday on WLRN, 91.3 FM, live at 1 p.m., rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Missed a show? Find every episode of Sundial on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.
