Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
State to restrict shark fishing from shore
The state wildlife commission voted Wednesday to impose restrictions on shore-based shark fishing, an activity that produces hair-raising YouTube videos of nighttime battles with great hammerheads and tiger sharks.
The practice also frightens swimmers, who fear it brings big sharks closer to shore. And scientists say it endangers the sharks, which are often dragged onto the beach for photos that gratify fishermen’s egos but reduce the sharks’ chances of survival upon their return to the ocean.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, meeting in Fort Lauderdale, voted unanimously to direct its staff to draw up tougher shorebased shark-fishing rules. The rules — to be determined — could include a special license for shore-based fishing, stricter requirements on how to handle
the sharks and possible restrictions on fishing gear.
Commissioner Joshua Kellam said he was particularly angered by images on social media that showed people clowning around near the beached sharks, holding their mouths open for photos or perching on their backs.
“Some of those pictures that were shown on social media were disgraceful,” he said. “I think it’s a disgrace to the animal, it’s a disgrace to our wildlife, so I think that just morally people should be ashamed of themselves to post stuff like that, to do that stuff to animals. People who do these things should be punished for their actions.”
Josh Jorgensen, star of the highly rated “BlacktipH” YouTube fishing show, who has long done shore-based shark fishing in South Florida, said the critics are exaggerating the harm done by a few people. He described it as an activity that provides harmless fun and doesn’t put swimmers in danger, because large sharks routinely come near shore, whether people know it or not.
“Some people are a little overzealous for their photos,” he said in a telephone interview. “People catch sharks because they’re big and they’re fun to catch. Obviously there has to be a priority of getting the fish back in the water, but at the same time, a fisherman deserves his right to document his catch, I don’t care if it’s a shark, a sailfish, a tarpon or a guppy. I just think that’s fair.”
The commission, a sevenmember volunteer board that oversees the agency in charge of wildlife protection, discussed the issue at a meeting at the Marriott Fort Lauderdale North. Before the vote, there was more than an hour of public comment, with nearly all the speakers supporting a crackdown on shore-based shark fishing. No one who participated in the activity spoke.
In a presentation to the commission, Jessica McCawley, director of the wildlife commission’s division of marine species management, said the activity did not appear to pose a danger to swimmers.
“While we are concerned with any victims that have had interactions with wildlife, there is no evidence to date that suggest that shorebased fishing activities draw sharks to near-shore waters and increase the occurrence of the nearby shark bites,” she said.
But during the public comment period, Melbourne Beach Mayor Jim Simmons disagreed.
“We have regulations on feeding alligators and cleaning fish where alligators are likely to be present,” he said. “We don’t allow divers to feed sharks. Even though we have no hard data, we know it would be foolish to allow those activities. Yet we allow shark fishing and blood baiting among swimmers, while saying there’s no hard data and the correlation cannot be proven.”
Many speakers expressed concern for the sharks, a once-despised class of marine life that has inspired a worldwide conservation movement. They said it appeared that the wildlife commission was doing little to enforce existing laws to protect certain species of shark, such as the great hammerhead, that are protected under state law.
“Based on some very disturbing footage I’ve been seeing on social media, it appears that none of these rules and guidelines seem to apply to those that insist on landing sharks on shore,” said Kent Bonde, survivor of a 2001 shark attack who has since become a shark conservation activist. “Footage includes at least one pregnant hammerhead, an assortment of tiger, lemon and sandbar sharks, all of which have been dragged on shore to serve as photo opportunities before being dragged back into the water.”
Any action by the commission is at least months away. The commission’s staff will draw up regulations, and in such situations typically consults with various stakeholders, including shark fishing groups, conservationists and 535 scientists. Draft rules will go to the commission, with further opportunities for public comment.