Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
There’s been a lot of discussion about the town of Ocean City’s decision to prohibit the use of kayaks or other vessels (or devices) to deliver shark baits out from the beach. Considering how popular land-based shark fishing has become over the last decade or so, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that this new regulation has not been well received by some members of our fishing community.
For the sake of those who are not up on this type of fishing, I should probably point out that land-based sharking has gone on for a lot of years, but it’s really only been during the last decade that it has blossomed into something done by more than just a relatively small number of hard-core anglers dedicated to that type of fishing. The expansion of this fishery is almost exclusively the result of the advent of the modern style kayak which allows fishermen to paddle hefty-size shark baits out beyond the breakers, many hundreds of yards from the beach, where they stand an increased chance of being picked up by a large shark. Before these kayaks became so readily available, anglers had to “cast” their baits out, which severely limited the size of bait they could throw, the distance they could get the bait out from shore and the size of the tackle they would have to land a large shark with.
No longer a sport practiced by mostly experienced big game fishermen, now anyone with a kayak and a big rod and reel can spend their early evening playing tug-o-war with few big sharks on the beach and still have time to take the wife and kids to the boardwalk for caramel corn and rides before bedtime!
To stop large sharks from being landed on their beaches the Mayor and City Council didn’t have to “ban” shark fishing, all they had to do was say that kayaks could not be used to deliver baits, knowing that such an action would effectively put an end to most of the sharks being landed from the beach.
The prohibition has prompted many to asked “If shark fishing is something the public enjoys, is legal, the sharks are always released and no one has been hurt, then what’s the problem? Why ban it? And hasn’t the town got bigger issues to worry about?” Some have drawn up their own conclusions that the town was just bowing to the complaints of a few beachgoers who didn’t know a thing about sharks or shark fishing, and even suggested that for reasons of public relations the town was trying to “hide” the fact there are sharks in our local waters.
Unfortunately social media images and videos of people sitting on the backs of sharks or “waltzing” with them in the surf has ruined it for anglers who have safely, ethically and without a lot of hoopla been sharking from our beaches for many years. Considering all the safety issues for both “fish” and “fisherman” that revolve around this type of fishing, I’m actually somewhat surprised that either the town of Ocean City, Maryland DNR or even the National Park Service (Assateague Island) didn’t take some kind of action sooner to at least curtail “some” of the antics that have occurred on the beach over the last few years.
Handling a shark through the entire catch-and-release process can be tricky and somewhat dangerous enough from a boat, standing in knee deep water while breaking waves push the animal in unpredictable directions adds an increased level of danger for fishermen, their helpers and sometimes even for bystanders who might move in close for a better view of the landing. And in an era when everyone has a video camera in their pocket, you can bet that more than just a few folks have succumb to the temptation to put their better judgment on hold and ham it up a bit when they know they’re being videoed. YouTube is full of videos of anglers and bystanders doing stupid and dangerous things with sharks before they turn them loose. Other than one fellow who apparently was tumbled while kayaking out a bait and impaled on his own hook, I don’t know if any serious injuries on Delmarva’s beaches yet, but the way things have been going you better believe an injury is on it’s way - and it’s not going to be pretty because even a “little” shark bite is bad news!
To minimize the danger of handling a live shark in the surf, beach anglers will often drag them by their tail or by the leader up and out of the water before dehooking, measuring, tagging, photographing and any other procedures they choose to perform before dragging it back down to the water for the release. Unfortunately, while this action will help minimize the chance of injury to the fisherman, it can result in the eventual death of the shark.
Sharks are pretty tough on the outside and able to recover from severe external injuries, but on the inside they aren’t so sturdy and are very susceptible to damage from mishandling. Lifting or dragging a shark by its tail can lead to damage to its vertebra that can end its life. If the hook is imbedded in the shark’s esophagus or gut, dragging it by the leader can greatly magnify any internal injuries the shark has already sustained. Removing the shark from the water also intensifies stress levels while oxygen depletion saps the animals strength. Sand in the gills and warm air temperatures also work against the odds of the shark surviving a catch and release on the beach.
This leaves anglers in somewhat of a quandary. Should they risk their own well-being by releasing sharks in the water? Or should they risk the life of the shark by hauling it up onto the sand and then back into water before releasing it? Either the angler loses a hand or the shark loses it’s life, two options – choose one. Understandably, many anglers will choose to put their own safety over that of the shark, which was an argument we heard by fishermen when the state of Delaware decided to prohibit anglers from removing surf-caught sharks from the water before release.
Sandbar, dusky and sand tiger sharks are the three most commonly hooked species of sharks from the beach. According to National Marine Fisheries Service, the population status of these three species is at such low levels of abundance that they are considered to be overfished and they have been placed on the “prohibited species list” which means that they cannot be taken at any time, and technically (by NMFS regulations), cannot even be targeted for catch-and-release. So as far as our local sharks are concerned, those three species are among those that need the most “conservation” - not the most “exploitation”.
Sand tigers are the largest sharks commonly taken off the beach. Anyone who fished for sharks back in the 70’s and early 80’s remembers how easy it was to pull up to almost any wreck or shoal, 3-10 miles offshore, and tug on as many of these sharks as their arms and backs could withstand. Compared to most sharks, sand tigers are slow, sluggish and anything but exciting on the line, but their large size and wicked-looking teeth have always made them an eye-popping catch for novice shark anglers. The ease that these sharks could be caught was their downfall, and by the mid-90’s they were all but wiped out of our local waters. In 1997 they were one of the first sharks to make the prohibited list and it took almost 10-years until we started to see them show up again in some of their former haunts. With still a long way to go before they can be considered “out of the woods”, every sand tiger is precious to the recovery of the species.
Unfortunately sand tigers have some habits that make them even more susceptible to post release mortality than most other sharks. Most sharks swim constantly, so when they pick up a bait there is a good chance that the line will come tight allowing the circle hook to properly set in the jaw. Sand tigers are able to retain air in their stomach giving them additional buoyancy so they can swim very slowly and, with just a little current, can even hover in one place. This allows them to pick up and immediately swallow a bait without coming tight on the line, permitting the hook to get inside the stomach and, even with a circle hook, have a better than average chance of impaling in the gut or esophagus. Therefore, as anyone who has caught them from the beach knows, an alarmingly high percentage of sand tigers end up being gut-hooked, and a “gut-hooked” shark can eventually end up being a “dead” shark, particularly those that also have to endure the ordeal that some anglers choose to put them through up on the sand.
The complex task of managing our marine resources is a job for our state and federal fishery managers, not the town of Ocean City’s. But the folks in City Hall “are” responsible for public safety issues that occur within our city limits. If they didn’t do anything to curtail what has been happening on the beach, and someone got hurt, you can bet that everyone and their brother would be jumping on them for not taking action sooner. The mayor and city council did what was needed to be done to keep the public safe and along the way a few shark that species will benefit from a little extra and well-needed conservation.
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
