Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece about the satellite SPOT tagging of mako sharks we’ve been involved with off the coast of Delmarva. The project was started two years ago with the tagging of five makos, and last year there were eight. Until last week the daily location information was still being received from five of the sharks tagged in 2014 and researchers were marveling at the incredible and important information they were still getting from the sharks almost a year after of being tagged.
One of the sharks, an 85-pound female that was tagged last May 17, was named “St.Marys” had logged an incredible 9,200 miles traveling from Ocean City to Nova Scotia, then all the way down to Venezuela, Puerto Rico, until just a few weeks ago the mako was reporting again from the waters off Delmarva not far from where she was originally tagged. Then after 358-days the tag transmitted from a dock in Chincoteague and then from a home in Baltimore! Obviously, since makos don’t travel across the land very well, it would appear that “St. Marys” met her demise by a fisherman who decided to bring the girl home for dinner - even though she might not have been too keen on what was on the menu!
While it’s extremely disappointing that St. Marys was boated, in defense of the angler who caught the mako it’s only fair to point out that there’s no law that says that tagged fish must be released. Besides, for all we know it might have been caught at night and those aboard the boat didn’t even notice the transmitter and antenna attached to the sharks dorsal fin until they had it gaffed and in the boat. Whatever happened, suffice to say that “it’s done” and researchers will just have to be happy with what great data they derived from the St. Marys while it was alive and transmitting and not worry about what they won’t learn about where it might have gone after it left Delmarva’s waters this year.
Of course it’s a big ocean out there and the chances that any of a small handful of tagged makos might be recaptured has not been a primary concern to the researchers even though they have invested incredible amounts of time, effort, and resources to get the tags on the sharks in the first place. But with so much good science coming from the makos that have been successfully tagged, the researchers are making a push to tag more than ever this month, and if the project goes the way they hope there will be about 20 more makos swimming around the Atlantic and talking to the satellites. Unfortunately that will also serve to increase the likelihood of recaptures by fishermen.
Considering the purchase price of the tag, satellite-use fees, and all the costs involved with catching the sharks, there can end up being more than $6,000 invested in each mako tagged, which makes it all the more painful when one of the study sharks is plucked out of the water for the sake of a few mako steaks. So to help promote the release of tagged makos the researchers have hatched an incentive plan for fishermen to release them.
Through this program any angler anywhere who catches a mako with an actively transmitting SPOT tag will receive $500 if they are able to provide a photograph of the shark in the water with the tag on its dorsal fin as long as the mako continues to transmit for at least a month after the release. Spot tags are easy to identify in that their outer shell is a clear case about half the size of a deck of cards and they have a 7-inch black antenna that sticks up above the dorsal fin.
Just like any other fish intended for release, those who catch one of the tagged makos should handle them carefully around the boat so they do not experience undue stress or injury and hopefully anglers will be using circle hooks that will help ensure that the shark is hooked in the jaw rather than in the gut. Sharks intended for release should not be removed from the water and they should not be gaffed in any fashion.
The SPOT tag will be located on the left side of the fin so anglers might need to leader their catch to the starboard side of the boat to get a good photo that properly shows the tag. Anglers will also need to provide GPS coordinates with the photo. I can be reached at 410-726-7946 or emailed at [email protected] and will be happy to facilitate the process of getting fishermen paid for their efforts.
When you figure that by releasing one of these makos you’ll make a shark happy, a group of researchers happy, and I’m pretty sure that with an extra 500-bucks in your pocket you’ll be a little happier, this program should prove to be a win-win-win for everyone involved. And if anyone is worried about the mako that won’t be showing up on their grill this summer, don’t worry, you can buy a lot of fresh mako steaks for $500!
Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and Captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.