The Demons of Durban - Part I

From the Team Rebel Fishing Blog.

Today's land based shark fishing is 99% catch, tag, and release.

This was not always the case and this week the TRS blog launched a multi-part expose on land based shark fishing roots.

The Demons of Durban

Early in the twentieth century, in a town which is now known internationally for its history of violent shark attacks, a group of men would fish on the legendary South jetty on the edge of the shipping and whaling lanes for grunters and various other pan fish for table fare. But over the course of the years during the South African whaling season, the anglers would constantly see large numbers of massive sharks that entered the lanes to feast upon the whales scraps that were useless to the whalers, and tossed aside into the harbor's dead end.

Every year between May 1st and September 30th, the jetty would be littered with the anglers of the Durban Shark Club, for the sole fact that this was the time period allotted for hunting the Baleen whales that migrated down the African coast. When the whalers would arrive back to port with their catches in tow, the sharks would be nipping at the heels of the boats and their prize harvest.

Many account have even recorded that up till the moment the entire whale carcass was drug up the whaling chute, that there were Zambezi (Bull) sharks, hanging onto the carcass until the last possible moment to get one last chunk of the rich blubbery flesh before they awaited the return of the next whaler in the fleet.

Complete Post.

When "One Shark" Becomes An Ambassador

You see it all the time. A large shark swimming on the other side of a public aquariums enclosure, an "ambassador shark". For those in the shark conservation world we have come to realize the positive effects of these solo animals on the public perception of sharks in general.

But what about dead sharks?

They too serve a purpose. Perhaps it is the sheer numbers of sharks that get taken for fins each year (25-75 million) that become the conservation movements hardest challenge.

How do you generate understanding and public sympathy for a number?

A single dead shark can generate understanding, sympathy and action. It was a single pregnant female Tiger taken in the Bahamas back in 2007 that spawned the Shark Free Marinas Initiative.

The public, no matter how jaded towards sharks, will respond to a single animal taken and killed for no obvious reason, and that is the heart of the shark conservation movement.

One shark, an ambassador for the entire species.

For a prime example of this look no further than a recent take in Ireland of an 18 foot Six Gill shark. This sport take of a single animal has managed to raise the ire and media bandwidth of many around the world including Ireland. This single animals death prompted a wave of conservation discussion - a feat that all the long liners off Ireland's coast could not.

We covered it too as it was quickly evident that this single shark was going to become the ambassador animal for the regions conservation news. Conservation change starts with the public understanding of sharks and "Sympathy for the Devil".

We can get there with these few unfortunate animals.