New Guide For Shark Fishing
NMFS steps up efforts to inform public about shark regulations

February 18, 2004
By Deleware Beachcomber

Probably more so than at any other time of the year, in the ever-changing and often controversial world of fishery management, this mid-winter period is when most of the meetings are held, discussions are had and decisions are made that will affect the upcoming and subsequent fishing seasons.

The timing of this is often not by chance but by the fact that within certain fisheries any new quotas, seasons and bag limits must be set as a result of what went on during the previous season. In other words, they need to know who caught what last year, before they can figure out who they'll allow to catch what this year, and it usually takes more than just a few months to collect and process that fishery data.

About this time last year, I reported about how recent studies had shown the populations of certain species of sharks were showing positive signs of recovery. After a decade of having a federal shark management plan in effect we were finally seeing at least some positive results. I emphasize the word "some" because even now there are still an alarming number of species of sharks that are in the danger zone. Management continues to work on the problem but in the world of the shark, things grow slowly.

Having just come back from a three-day National Marine Fisheries Service Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting in Silver Spring, Md., I'm now privy to a whole bunch of new facts about my favorite fish in the sea. Like last year, some of the info was encouraging and some depressing.

One thing that took me by surprise was that last season recreational anglers are "reported" to have landed 88 percent more than we were supposed to. Even though the sampling methods NMFS uses to come up with its catch statistics are suspect of being quite flawed, this still indicates a potentially huge overage of sharks being landed by recreational fishermen, and bad news for some of the more troubled species of sharks.
EEven if we arbitrarily gave it a 50-percent margin for error, folks familiar with our mid-Atlantic shark fishery would probably take issue with these findings. After all, most us around here know that these days there are simply not all that many sharks being brought back to the docks. But according to NMFS, the bulk of the problem is not coming from anglers who fish in the mid-Atlantic or even the northeast, most of the "overage" is being generated by anglers in mostly southern waters who are catching and keeping undersized sharks or protected species sharks. For the most part these anglers are not necessarily even fishing for sharks but are catching them accidentally while targeting other types of fish.

AApparently, the problem exists simply because so many anglers are unaware of the federal shark regulations and are mistakenly choosing to keep rather than release undersized or protected sharks. With this in mind, NMFS has decided to step up its efforts to inform the public about shark regulations. So far they've produced a pamphlet that lists the recreational shark regulations. This pamphlet is just now starting to be delivered and should soon be showing up in this area. In fact, I have a bunch of them to drop off at local tackle shops and marinas.

NMFS has also just put the finishing touches on a 124-page, full-color, waterproof guide and identification book that features 44 highly migratory species of sharks, tuna and billfish. Titled "Guide to Sharks, Tunas & Billfishes of the U.S. Atlantic & Gulf of Mexico," this reference book is available for $25 through the Rhode Island Sea Grant Communications Office, URI Bay Campus, Narragansett, RI 02882-1197.

This is absolutely one of the best quick reference books for offshore fish I've ever seen, the photos are as sharp as they can be, the drawings are precise and the written descriptions are accurate. This should be considered a "must have" for anyone who runs a boat offshore in quest of any of these large fish.

Anglers who arm themselves with both the reference book and the regulation pamphlet should be able to accurately identify most any large HMS fish they might likely land off our coast and quickly know if it's legal to boat. Anglers should welcome this as not only an occasion to keep from getting caught and fined for possessing illegal fish, but also as an opportunity to learn about and actually help protect some of our ocean's fragile and valuable resources.

Even though mid-Atlantic anglers are not the major culprits of the "reported" 88- percent overage, we can still make a positive difference in the fishery by knowing our shark regulations and boning up on our shark identification.