Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Over the last few months, sharks have captured a lot of public interest and certainly more than just few headlines. It all started when the infamous white shark, “Mary Lee” made her presence known when her transmitter tag pinged the satellites just off Delmarva in early spring. In June came a few serious attacks on swimmers in the Carolina’s and before the month was out, an apparently fame-starved hammerhead decided to give tourists a thrilling show by patrolling back and forth in the Ocean City surf one day and then poking around the bay the next. Just when we all thought it was safe to go back in the water, a video surfaced of a white shark that tried to get a little too chummy with a contestant of a recent surfing competition in South Africa. All were a series of reminders of who’s really in charge out there!
The last few months have also been pretty “sharky” for local fisherman, starting back in May, when makos, blues and threshers began snapping up their baits just 20 to 30 miles offshore. Since then, as the waters warmed from the 50’s to the 60’s, and now the mid to upper 70’s, those three species are no longer as abundant in the same areas as they were, but there is certainly no lack of shark action in other places. Recent conditions of clean water, high water temperatures and an abundance of natural bait have not hindered the normal influx and variety of shark species to our local waters. Right now, and for the next few months, anglers plying the waters inside of 10-miles might encounter spinners, blacktips, duskies, sandbars, sand tigers, Atlantic sharpnose, blacknose, smooth and scalloped hammerheads, threshers, smooth dogfish, and even tigers – it’s summer and the boys are back in town!
With so much variety of species and the fact that anglers don’t need to push their boats too far offshore to reach them, fishermen are often tempted to take a break from their normal routines of putting in long days and distant runs to catch tuna, or from staying inside the bay to fish for flounder, and have some fun with sharks. But while a little light-tackle sharking 8 to 9-miles out can be exciting and fun for fishermen and women of all ages and skill levels, anglers must be aware that if they decide to mess with sharks they are going to have to conform to, and comply with, volumes of rules and regulations that they might not be aware of or have ever had to worry about in other fisheries.
It use to be that when it came to sharks, anglers could pretty much do as they pleased, but these days sharks swimming in waters controlled by the United States do so under the protection of some of the most stringent regulations in the world, so fishermen had better have their ducks in a row before they even think about messing with sharks. Between fishing gear restrictions, the necessary permits, seasons, bag limits, size limits, prohibited species, and required catch reporting, there’s a lot of hoops a fisherman needs to jump through before they can even think about going out to chase sharks!
When it comes to permits, anglers will, of course, have to be covered under a normal saltwater fishing license for the state waters they are fishing in, but in addition to that, if they are fishing in federal waters (3 or more miles out) they are also required to have a federal Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Permit for the boat they are fishing from. This permit is required for any boat that might catch tuna, billfish, or sharks and comes in two classes; the HMS Angling Category Permit for private vessels and the HMS Charter/Head Boat Permit for charter and party boats.
One way or the other, potential shark anglers must also get themselves educated on the proper identification of the various species of sharks they might encounter off our coast because different regulations apply to different types of sharks. Contrary to some of what has been stated in the media lately, none of the species commonly found in our waters are classified as “endangered species”, however, there are a number of them that, because of their population status, are classified as “prohibited species” and therefore may not be targeted by anglers or ever retained if they are caught while fishing for other species. The prohibited species most often caught off Delmarva include sand tiger, sandbar and dusky sharks. The common shark species that can be fished for and also “sometimes” kept, if they are the right size and within the right season, would be the spinner, blacktip, hammerhead, tiger, mako, blue, thresher and Atlantic sharpnose, as well as the spiny and smooth dogfish.
Every season I see photos of people on the beach or in their boat with sharks that they claim to be one species that are in fact something entirely different. With so many species out there this time of the year, and different regulations falling on different types of sharks, some of which makes them totally hands-off, my strong recommendation is that anyone who cannot with great accuracy tell one species from the next had better treat every shark they land as a prohibited species and go totally catch-and-release. There is a great identification guide put out by the University of Rhode Island called “A Guide To Sharks, Tunas & Billfishes of the U.S. Atlantic & Gulf of Mexico” that allows anglers to easily make accurate identification of any sharks, billfish or tunas they might catch off Delmarva. EVERY shark angler should have a copy of this guide on their boat.
It’s also critically important that anglers who engage in shark fishing use every means possible to ensure that the sharks they catch and release have the best possible chance for survival. This puts the burden on the fisherman to use tackle and tactics that will not stress a shark beyond the point of recovery after it’s released. Remember, just because you see a shark (or any fish) swim away from the boat or beach doesn’t mean it’s going to live. When a shark is brought to the boat or beach, any measuring, tagging, photographing and de-hooking must be done quickly so as not to cause undue stress or injury. Sharks should not be gaffed (even lip-gaffed) if they are to be released and anglers should ALWAYS use circle-hooks when fishing for sharks.
Anglers should also know that when shark fishing there might be times when their best course of action is to get their lines out of the water because some sharks that roll up a chumline are simply too big to mess with. Twice this year we’ve opted to bring our lines in rather than run the risk of hooking large white sharks that came up to our boat. While I know it sort of goes against the grain of what most fishermen typically want to do (catch the biggest fish ever), when it comes to sharks anglers will sometimes have to decide if the animal is simply too big to tangle with given the tackle they have on hand and/or the time of day.
Fishermen might not want to get into a long drawn out battle with a fish they are going to have to release anyway. And since dealing with any large fish has its inherent dangers, the experience of the crew should also be taken into consideration before dropping a line to some big monster.
Anglers must keep in mind that any sharks brought back to the dock must be registered in the same way they register bluefin tuna and billfish which means that in Maryland the shark may not be unloaded from the boat until a Maryland Catch Card is filled out and a tag is attached to the catch.
Summertime shark fishing can be exciting and a world of fun, but participation in this fishery requires that anglers know their sharks, fish responsibly and follow the many rules and regulations designed to preserve and protect these important and vulnerable ocean predators.
Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and Captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.