Is Sharkey Supposed to be a Substitute for Quarrel?

It seems kind of odd that we've never seen Sharkey before in the Bond series and yet, it's played up as if Bond and Felix have known him for years (to the point in which he's one of the best men at Felix's wedding). It seemed like Sharky was inspired by Quarrel (or technically, Quarrel's son in Live & Let Die, for which David Hedison first appeared as Felix Leiter) since he's another large black man/fisherman who's allies w/ Bond. Maybe the filmmakers figured that it would've been too weird to kill off Quarrel's son after we saw his dad get killed in Dr. No. Also, if they were going to have David Hedison reprise his role from Live & Let Die then they might as well have also gotten Roy Stewart back to play Quarrel Jr.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097742/board/flat/181523212?p=1