Anglers blame shark-diving for half-eaten catches, seek rules to allow thinning the herd
Ed KillerSharks are headline grabbers. There is something in our cerebral cortex that triggers nearly every person to stop scrolling and click when they see the word "shark."
Sharks are cool. They're mysterious, maybe even magical in a way. One of the great things about living in Florida is you're never very far away from a shark, especially if you're in or on the water.
This week, two shark issues popped up, which technically are unrelated, but kind of are related. They center on sharks and what we, perhaps, need to do differently about managing them.
Some believe we have too few sharks and they need more protection. Others believe we have too many and we may need to increase their commercial harvest.
Too many?
Capt. Patrick Price of Jensen Beach, owner of DayMaker charters out of Sailfish Marina in Stuart, steered clients to catches during the recent three-day red snapper mini-season. For many Atlantic anglers, limits were hard to come by for a number of reasons. Others did quite well.
Anglers who struggled reported problems with current and sea conditions. But for some, there was one more factor keeping anglers from scoring red snapper catches — sharks.
Many charter and commercial fishers are complaining more and more about catches being "sharked." As the target catch is being reeled in, sharks of several species will take advantage of the struggling fish. The end result is often half a snapper, a third of a grouper or only the head of an amberjack makes it to the deck. Many catches never make it more than a few feet off the bottom. All anglers get back is a sliced line.
More: How anglers fared during red snapper mini-season
Taxman
Anglers call it getting "taxed" and often refer to a shark as the "taxman."
For Price, it happened nearly 10 times over the three-day weekend, either having fish chomped in half or losing them completely to shark bites near the sea floor. Many skippers report having to relocate to four or five different spots to try to give their anglers a chance at bringing a fish all the way in without losing the best parts.
"It's been a constant battle for me and other captains I know," Price said. "Some cobia anglers have gone through 6 or 8 cobia lost to sharks just to catch their limit. That isn't sustainable."
It happens to spearfishers too. But can you really ask a shark to differentiate between a hand-fed chunk of bonito and a cobia on the end of a speargun's line? A border collie couldn't do the same.
The species of sharks involved in the taxing are mostly bull sharks and sandbar sharks. The species of fish that frequently get sharked are:
- All snapper species
- All grouper species
- Great and lesser amberjacks
- Cobia
- Kingfish
- Bonito
- Blackfin tuna
- Sailfish
- Wahoo
- Tarpon
- Snook
- Even other sharks
Basically if it swims, a shark will try to eat it. Especially when it is near a boat. And that raises a potential cause of the problem.
Shark dive
Some bluewater anglers have laid blame on the diving charters that offer shark dives. Several operations working from Palm Beach and Broward counties will happily take clients to the edge of state waters, 3 miles offshore, and jump over the side with a milk crate full of bonito heads and dead jack crevalles.
The practice of shark-feeding is outlawed in Florida waters, but on the Atlantic coast, the 3-mile run offshore is 5 minutes away after clearing the inlet. Sharks show up within a couple of minutes to the delight of divers who never have seen one up close.
Oceana released a report stating shark diving in Florida waters in 2017 generated $221 million to the economy. The American Sportfishing Association reported that recreational fishing contributes some $11 billion to Florida's economy.
Dive charter operators claim the blame has nothing to do with them. To me, however, sharks are highly evolved, and they live a relatively long time. That means much of their behavior can be learned. It wouldn't take but a few shark dives before a bull shark learned that a 26-foot fiberglass boat is associated with a free lunch.
But the divers could be correct. Perhaps we are experiencing more sharks in fishing areas than we remember in years past because overfishing at one level or another is taking place in our oceans. If the food supply is getting scarce, sharks will find the food.
Federal help?
Price suggested in a Facebook post this week that all anglers report the "taxman" problem to NOAA Fisheries, the nation's federal fishery management agency. His post received 119 comments and 155 shares.
Can federal managers increase harvest of sharks for commercial fishers without affecting their biological status in the ocean? Perhaps the better question is, would they? Which leads to the next issue.
Too few?
Several dead sharks were observed this week. One hammerhead was lying in shallow water just a few yards off Juno Beach. Photographer Jack Bates of JackBatesPhotography captured it underwater from his paddleboard using his GoPro. When he stuck the camera under the gentle wave, a large tiger shark could be seen munching on the hammerhead.
Did I mention this was just a few yards off the beach?
Seriously, if you follow Bates on Instagram, it is striking video (plus he was kind enough to let TCPalm have access to it at the top of this story).
How did the hammerhead die? No one can be sure, but it likely was hooked and released by shark fishers fishing from the beach. Frequently, these large sharks expend all their energy during the fight, and even once they are released, they do not fare well. Some die later and wash back into the beach. It has happened on numerous Florida beaches the last couple of years.
Before land-based shark anglers start sending me hate mail, consider something: This is really happening. Not all anglers are killing these sharks inadvertently, but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission imposed new shore-based shark fishing permit regulations last year for this very reason.
More:New state laws include no chumming from the beach
If this continues, shark fishers can absolutely expect the regulations to get tighter before they get looser. One day, if hammerheads and tigers keep dying in the surf, the FWC may disallow it completely.
Meanwhile, offshore on the reefs, those sharks are really getting thick.
Ed Killer is TCPalm's outdoors writer. Become a valued customer by subscribing to TCPalm. To interact with Ed, friend him on Facebook at Ed Killer, follow him on Twitter @tcpalmekiller or email him at ed.killer@tcpalm.com.