White Shark Caught on Huntington Pier, Ca?

Huntington Beach Pier is a well known hot spot for shark fishing. The specialty of this pier in season is Thresher shark.

Unfortunately from time to time young of the year White sharks are taken and as this video demonstrates these animals are often misidentified as Mako sharks. Leading to the question, could it be possible for a shark group in the region (and we know there's a few) to create signage to help folks identify caught sharks?

Peter Thomas has the scoop on what happened to the folks who caught this shark:

Sunburnt Redneck and Sharks - Bad Combo? Always

Thanks to Dorsal Fin Blog for the video find this week. Sadly the shark had to endure this beer fueled miscreants unwanted advances, fortunately the shark got the last mouthful:

Guy Harvey and Shark Tournaments - Leadership

March 25, 2011
Written By: News Editor, Shawn J. Soper

OCEAN CITY -- In an effort to build on an already solid conservation ethic, organizers of the annual Ocean City Shark Tournament are partnering this year with the well-known Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation to increase payouts and prize packages for the release division of the popular event in June.

The Ocean City Shark Tournament returns to the host Ocean City Fishing Center in June with even stronger conservation measures in place than in years past. While there will still be some large sharks weighed at the scale during the four-day event in June, the cash payouts and prize packages for anglers and boats that opt to release their catches will be more than doubled, thanks in large part to the new partnership with the conservation-minded Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation.

The Ocean City Shark Tournament was started 31 years ago as a small club tournament with a few trophies and rods and reels handed out as prizes. Over the last three decades, the tournament has evolved to become one of the largest events of its kind on the east coast and last year doled out over $142,000 in prize money to the winners in several categories.

While much of the drama surrounding the event includes the weighing of large sharks at the scales at the host Ocean City Fishing Center, from the beginning the tournament has been rooted in a strong conservation effort. Last year, for example, just 18 sharks were brought to the scale, while 146 were released during the three days of fishing and the tournament boasts a 95-percent release rate in its three decades of existence.

“Just like sharks, the Ocean City Shark Tournament’s success can be attributed to long-term adaptation,” said tournament co-founder and director Captain Mark Sampson. “From the beginning, we made a commitment to run an event with an eye to conservation and serious effort not to adversely impact shark resources.”

Efforts have been made over the years to help ensure participating anglers are bringing back to the scales only the right size and type of sharks. For example, the tournament has maintained minimum size limits higher than what the federal government allows, made certain species eligible for catch-and-release points only, and increased the prize money payouts for the release division.

“By proactively adapting the tournament to address critical issues with sharks and within the shark fishery, we’ve been able to keep the event on a track that’s been fun for fishermen, educational for spectators and a little more successful every year,” Sampson said.

This year, however, tournament organizers, with the partnership of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, are expanding on the conservation effort with greater incentives for the participating boats and anglers to release more sharks and bring fewer to the scales.

“We haven’t done away with the two divisions that allow anglers to bring sharks to the scales, but knowing the tournament anglers tend to pursue categories that offer the biggest payout, we’re looking to make the Release Division cash and prize packages so attractive that, by their own choosing, fishermen will opt to release more sharks,” he said. “That should be a win for fishermen and a win for sharks.”

Sampson said in discussions with Guy Harvey it became clear that his Ocean Foundation and the Ocean City Shark Tournament shared the similar goals of minimizing shark mortalities and maximizing educational outreach about shark conservation. It was determined the best way to encourage tournament anglers to release more sharks was to boost the prize packages in the Release Division. To that end, the Guy Harvey Foundation has offered to more than double the amount of guaranteed payouts in the release division.

“We’re really excited about this support from such a well-known and well-respected leader in marine conservation and wonder if this sponsorship might prove to be infectious as recently the makers of “Fish Bomb” fish attractant also signed up to be a sponsor of the Release Division,” said Sampson.

Sampson said while just a small percentage of the sharks caught during the tournament each year are brought to the scales and far more shark mortality is attributed to wanton slaughter internationally, tournament organizers hope altering the payout formulas will help in a small way and send a message about the importance of conservation.

“The take of sharks by sport fishermen is miniscule compared to what is killed about commercial vessels around the world, but if shark populations are to survive, no one who engages in the fishery can be exempt from the burden of providing at lease some additional measure of conservation,” he said. “Everyone needs to evolve in the right direction. That’s the message we at the Ocean City Shark Tournament and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation hope to get across during our event this June.”

Oxnard California Sportfishing for White Sharks?

A quick visit to a sport fishing website sharks.us finds an outfit in Oxnard California that claims, for the lofty sum of just $1,895, to allow you to catch white sharks.

The only problem is the California Department of Fish and Game banned fishing for white sharks in 1994. The effort to get white shark fishing banned in the state of California took several years with many use groups including the sport fishing industry pushing for change.

Ongoing legislation to protect white sharks in California waters remains important and internationally trend setting legislation.

So why are the fleet boats of Sharks.us, all five of them, patrolling the waters from Oxnard to Marina del Ray offering white sharks as part of their monster shark experience?

Types of sharks caught:

• Mako Sharks
• Leopard Sharks
• Oceanic White Tips
• Thresher Sharks
• Tope (Soupfin) Sharks
• White Sharks
• Blue Sharks
• Nurse Sharks
• Lemon Sharks
• Hammerhead
• Bigeye Thresher
• Horn Sharks

About your Shark Adventure:

Your Adventure starts before you step on the dock. Sleepless nights and day dreaming of catching your monster shark, walking down the gang way with anticipation of pulling on a record breaker. The diesel engines firing up to announce to everyone we are starting out on an adventure of a lifetime. Is your heart racing now? Just wait till you see the fin set of a Mako in the chum slick, and then tell us if you can contain yourself. Have this filmed so you can try and share exactly how you felt with your family and friends. Remember, all you have to worry about is showing up on time and we provide everything else: profession crew, expertise, lunch, snacks, drinks, fishing license, tackle, rods and reels, bait, chum, fuel and oil.

chum@sharks.us

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.

Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge Media

Florida based Paxton Brothers put together a video montage featuring media highlights of the 2010 GHUSC.

The Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge was an unparalleled success, changing shark sport fishing paradigms one event at a time:

California Shark Fishing and the IGFA

As a commercial shark diving operator and a shark conservationist I am unsure how long the IGFA can continue to run with a catch and kill model for record holding with sharks.

It would seem easy enough to apply a set of new catch and release standards for records that were incentivised by the fishing industry. Perhaps if the IGFA added a new category with an iPhone app that allowed fishermen to instantly record and send in their virtual catches...at sea?

The IGFA will soon find themselves in direct conflict with a host of newer and more activist shark conservation groups should they choose to stick to catch and kill modelling with sharks.

The ocean environment of 2010 is a different place from 1939 when the IGFA came into existence.

Perhaps now is the time for new thinking, and new directions?

Video here.

Lessons we've learned from tagging sharks

OCEAN CITY -- In 1978, before I went into the charter fishing business full-time, I got involved with tagging sharks by signing up with NOAA's Coop-erative Shark Tagging Program. I still recall the satisfaction of planting the first tag and knowing that the act could provide biologists with data that could somehow help sharks.

Tagging added a new dimension to fishing that I had never known before. Every catch had more significance than just another struggle on the line, because when they swam away with our tag, they would, in a way, still be our fish. If someone caught them 10 days or 10 years later and chose to report the tag, we'd get credit for catching it first and we'd hear from NOAA the details about who recaptured it, where it was taken and how big it had grown.

I don't know what happened to that first shark, but we sure have heard about others. Since we started tagging we've had recaptures off the coast of every state along the East and Gulf Coast, Mexico, Cuba, the North Atlantic, Spain, and the Azores. As our involvement with shark fishing and tagging increased, so did our relationships with various biologists and fishery managers doing shark research, who have occasionally solicited help with various projects or studies.

Over the years we've had requests for catch data, tissue samples, stomach samples, teeth, entire sharks, assistance with hook studies, and the making of documentary and educational films.

Mark Samson is a sport fishing captain and fishing for sharks off the east coast. He is also the developer of the "Shark Block Rig" which has proven to be 90% effective in prohibiting gut hooked sharks.

Complete story.

Winners declared in Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge

The Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge wrapped up Sunday at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium with the presentation of a $10,000 grand prize check to team Pole Dancer.

The team's anglers - Wayne Nichols and Zac Gerzeny - won the Challenge by collecting the most points for the types and sizes of the sharks they caught and released Saturday and Sunday during the final round of the Challenge. (The first round took place April 30-May 2 from Burnt Store Marina in Charlotte Harbor.)

Gerzeny, who boosted his team's score by catching his first great hammerhead shark, said "This is my dream, ever since I can remember."

But the real winners in this all-release shark fishing tournament were the sharks, said the organizers, scientists, anglers and conservationists who came together to create a successful event. The Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge was designed to be a "next generation" model for shark fishing competitions that supported shark protection while still providing spectators and anglers a thrilling event.

"I love the idea of catch and release," said co-winner Nichols. "There's no sense in hanging up a dead shark if you don't have to. With Mote and Guy Harvey it's a winning combination all around."

Full press release here.

After a hell of a set up...a huge surprise!

Score one for the fly fishing "catch and release ethic" this week and a 6 foot surprise on the other end of the line from the L.A Times:

A great white shark about 6 feet long and 150 pounds was caught by a fly fisherman off La Jolla last week.

It's believed to be the first great white taken off the California coast using a fly rod and reel.

Jeff Patterson, director of sales for reel manufacturer Abel Automatics, was testing company products about five miles offshore when the white shark hit.

"The grab was instantaneous, and the shark cooperated with a quick left turn to allow the proper hook set," said Patterson.

The fight lasted about 25 minutes. Patterson thought it was a mako shark until he got it close enough to the boat and skipper Conway Bowman identified it as a great white.

Complete Story

Destin Florida - Shark Tournament Poll

Shark conservation efforts often come from unusual sources. This month the Destin Log in Destin, Florida

Last week Shark Free Marinas Initiative Director, Luke Tipple was asked to write an Op Ed concerning Destins planned shark kill tournament in October.

The editors of the Destin Log published an online poll today to determine regional and national views of this event.

To add your opinion click on the poll down on the lower right hand side.

Change begins with "One". Opinions count.

Shark Free Marinas - Op Ed Luke Tipple

The Destin Log asked Shark Free Marinas Initiative Director, Luke Tipple to weigh in on Destin, Florida's Shark Saturday events.

SFMI is currently working in three regions in the USA, the Bahamas and in Fiji to enact shark conservation change. That change will ultimately save sharks:

COLUMN: 'Shark Saturdays' promote ‘species eradication'

Shark fishing tournaments are a primal spectacle and tourist attraction that play on our innate awe of the “monster fish.” However, as more is learned about the imminent demise of many shark species, a more educated public is starting to emerge.

Destin’s Shark Saturdays is one such example of questionable promotion.

The event, scheduled for October, is actually four individual Saturdays which are part of a month-long fishing tournament. Helen Donaldson, the event’s executive director, states the purpose of the event is to “get more people fishing in Destin,” and here’s where the real problem lies.

While a shark being brought to the docks is unquestionably a crowd pleaser, the public is becoming more aware that they are witness to the decline of an already threatened species. Take for example, the Rodeo record-breaking mako that the event caught in 2007, which attracted criticism from around the world. According to event organizers the targeted species include bull sharks, hammerheads and tiger sharks, all of which appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s threatened species list.

The United States does not currently have any shark species listed as “endangered,” however, to be declared ‘threatened’ a species must be in danger of imminent population decline.

While recreational shark fishing regulations do exist, they are tough to monitor and therefore seldom enforced. If the objective of Shark Saturdays is to increase the number of people fishing for “threatened” species, then we have to ask the obvious question: Should we really be promoting species eradication?

Somewhere along the line, there has to be a change in how we view the ocean and the animals that make up a healthy ecosystem.

Specifically targeting breeding-age sharks for slaughter is ecologically unsafe. This action contributes significantly to overall population decline as competitors inevitably wait to catch the largest sharks, which are usually female and quite often pregnant.

Despite all this, the industry and economy of shark fishing tournaments cannot be ignored.

So what is the solution?

Our new resource management group believes we have the answer.

The Shark-Free Marina Initiative was established as an answer to the culture of “mature shark harvests.”

There is nothing wrong with catch and release shark fishing. When proper standards are followed, the animal can be released back into the breeding population. Fishermen can still enjoy the thrill of the hunt and be rewarded for their catch.

All it takes is for officials to switch their reward structure from weighing the animal, to measuring the animal in the water.

Shark-free Marinas promises to reduce worldwide shark mortality by prohibiting fishermen from bringing dead sharks to the dock. Instead they aim to work with marinas and fishing groups to develop events that will draw a crowd but don’t allow the mortal take of these “threatened” species.

Points and prizes will be awarded for sharks tagged, measured and released while the crowd remain entertained on the docks by interactive attractions and the usual fare that accompanies these events.

Already the SFMI is gaining supporters, and they are currently working with events such as the “Are You Man Enough?” fishing tournament to set a new standard in fishing competition. SFMI commends the Destin Fishing Rodeo for their shark tagging division but questions the sense in killing these animals for the top awarded prize of a mere $250.

All we are talking about is sensible management of ocean resources — particularly in relation to sharks.

It’s time that we drop the “Jaws” rhetoric and accept that we need these animals in the ocean. Events such as Shark Saturday make money by killing dwindling populations of sharks, and this kind of "family" event just perpetuates this culture in the kids who should be taught environmental responsibility.

With a little restructuring, we can help tournament organizers create a positive community event while still entertaining their hard core fishing audience.

Visit the Shark-Free Marinas website at www.sharkfreemarinas.com for more information.

Luke Tipple is Director of the Shark-Free Marina Initiative

Image:Todd Cameron

Shark Free Marinas - Empowering Change

The Shark Free Marinas Initiative is working in four regions of the USA and internationally to effect conservation change - clearly more work needs to be done:

L.A Times - Shark Free Marinas

L.A Times Pete Thomas covered the Shark Free Marinas Initiative today. The image to the left is professional fishing guide Bucky Dennis and his "world record" Hammerhead catch this spring:

Recreational fishermen in California are well aware of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, an ongoing and controversial stakeholder-driven process that is working to put in place a vast network of marine protected areas, including no-fishing zones, along the coast.

But many probably have not heard of the fledgling Shark-Free Marina Initiative, which recently launched a campaign to try to prohibit the landing of sharks in marinas around the world.

The SFMI figures to receive more angler support than the MLPAI, but there will be veteran shark anglers who oppose such meddling.

The SFMI is a response by shark conservationists to the perilous plight most species of sharks face because of rampant overfishing on a global scale, commercially.

"Although the number of sharks killed by recreational fishermen each year is dwarfed by commercial catches, the current crisis facing shark stocks requires action wherever possible," Edd Brooks, a scientist on the SFMI advisory board, said in a news release. "We are not asking fishermen to stop fishing, only asking them to start releasing their catch."

It's a worthy endeavor. Killing sharks for sport is increasingly unpopular and harmful to the marine environment. It's worse than killing marlin and other billfish because sharks are so slow to reproduce.

Luke Tipple, director of the SFMI, said there are only six cooperating marinas -- it began with two marinas in the Bahamas -- but six others have registered and recruitment drives are planned for Florida and California. Essentially, cooperating marinas, which can register on the SFMI website, obtain signage and literature that cautions in bright-red lettering that bringing dead sharks back to port won't be tolerated.

It will be interesting to see whether this will catch on and what kind of reaction it garners.

-- Pete Thomas

Shark Fishing Tournaments - June

The 24th annual Mako Mania shark tournament is ready to hear about the Shark Free Marinas Initiative.

Anyone live in the region?

As a reminder the SFMI provides regional conservation teams with the information and contact material you need to effect change at your marinas.

With a few clicks of a mouse you can send invitational material to join the SFMI and you'll have the staff at SFMI to help you with the media.

Shark tournaments like these are major financial boosters for their regions and should continue - this is not a protest.

Changing from a "shark kill" to "catch and release" is an easy way to go green and is good for offshore breeding aged sharks.

The organization behind the Mako Mania Tournament has a long history of green initiatives from artificial reef building to local scholarships.

If there was one shark fishing tournament that "understood green" these guys would be it.

9-ft. Bull Shark Caught St. Petersburg Pier

Another reason for the Shark Free Marinas Initiative:

ST. PETERSBURG — The Pier Aquarium's shark exhibits were open to visitors Wednesday morning, but the real show was right outside.

Two young men were showing off a 9-foot female bull shark they caught hours before at the Pier. The carcass was in the back of a small pickup truck, blood dripping onto the pavement. A small crowd snapped digital photos.

"It was either him or us," 19-year-old Joshua Lipert of St. Petersburg told an onlooker. "Look who lost."

His fishing buddy agreed. "It was a dogfight," said Robert Korkoske, 16, who helped reel in the shark.Using a 100-pound Dacron fishing line and sea rays for bait, the young men fought the animal for two hours from the northeastern end of the pier before landing it about 6:15 a.m., they said.

They dragged it to a small beach on the western end.

A trophy kill, they called it.

"We like to cut the jaws out, hang them on the wall as a souvenir," said Korkoske, who said the pair have caught several sharks before.Though the shark had not been put on ice and was outdoors for hours after the kill, Lipert said he would offer the meat to relatives. Taking it to a taxidermist was too expensive, he said.

Butch Ringelspaugh, curator of exhibits for the Pier Aquarium, estimated the shark weighed 350 to 500 pounds.He wasn't surprised to find a shark that size swimming around the Pier. "This is bull shark territory out here," Ringelspaugh said.

Still, he noted the irony that the museum educates the public about the importance of protecting sharks. While bull sharks are not endangered, state law limits the catch to one a day. They are among the most dangerous sharks in the world, Ringelspaugh said.

The curator would have preferred it if Ringelspaugh had released the shark, which he estimated was 15 to 25 years old. At that age, a healthy female could be pregnant, Ringelspaugh said.

"The thing is, it takes a long time for them to reach sexual maturity, and by the time they do, very few of their young will make it to adulthood," he said. "Sharks as a whole are definitely down in numbers. Over 100 million sharks a year are killed by humans."

Brent Winner, an associate research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife commission, dropped by and took a blood sample to study for mercury. He turned down an offer to take the whole shark, but later offered his opinion on killing it: "It's his right to kill that fish. But you would hope that someone doesn't kill for trophy alone."

Based on weight, age, and the plumpness of its belly, Winner believed the shark was pregnant with six or eight pups.

Help find a solution

SFMI concedes that this particular Bull shark was caught from a pier, yet principle of a Shark-Free Marinas remains the same. The St Petersberg Pier is adjacent to the City of St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.

To help Shark-Free Marinas be heard please print the “Invitation to Register“, found in our Support Tools section, and post it with a personal cover letter to:

Marina Manager
St. Petersburg Municipal Marina
300 2nd Ave. S.E.
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Or email to: Marina@stpete.org

Please remember they are a business and we will not condone slander of any kind. Instead let the manager know why your business is important and why they have an obligation to monitor their patrons activities. As this is a municiple marina community concerns will be taken to council for a decision, so be polite and be heard.