Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
I recently received a couple of emails from folks looking to charter a boat to do some shark fishing this summer. Since neither party has ever been out with us before, or ever done any type of shark fishing, they had a number of questions about departure times, prices, techniques, available dates, shark regulations and what the chances are of actually catching and bringing home a shark.
Answers to their “how and where” questions were pretty easy and straight forward, but when it came to shark regulations and whether or not they’d be bringing home some shark steaks, my response was a bit more complicated.
I started by explaining that, while recreational shark fishing is mostly a catch and release fishery, if our clients happen to catch a shark that is the right size and type that’s both good to eat as well as legal to keep, they will usually have the option to bring it home if they wish. However, there are a lot of different types of sharks out there, and the seasons, size limits and quality of meat varies considerably from species to species, so that even though we usually land a number of sharks on any given day, boating just the right shark that is both legal and tasty enough to bother bringing home to eat, is not a common occurrence.
Just a couple of decades ago, there where no shark regulations at all. But in the 1990’s our marine managers eventually wised-up and initiated a shark management plan to get some kind of control on both the commercial and recreational shark fisheries that were plucking certain species out of the ocean faster than God could replace them. At “two sharks per boat per day” the recreational limits started out pretty straightforward and easy to follow. But over time, it became obvious that while a two-shark limit was good for some sharks, there were certain species that required a higher level of conservation and, therefore, tighter regulations. The variations between the different types of sharks are so great that no single regulation can effectively manage them all.
Over the years, recreational shark regulations have been nudged, prodded and tweaked to what we have today, which is a conglomeration of different size limits, open and closed seasons, catch limits and prohibited species. While all this is certainly better for the sharks, it’s become a lot more complicated for fishermen to know what they may or may not bring home for dinner.
Delmarva anglers fish under both sate and federal shark regulations, and in a nutshell, here’s what anyone who wishes to bring a shark home to eat needs to know: Between May 15, and July 15, the only large sharks that can be kept are the “pelagic” shark species that include makos, common threshers, oceanic whitetips and blue sharks and there is a one shark per boat limit. The minimum “legal” size of these sharks is 54-inches (fork length), although most anglers prefer not to keep sharks that small and instead use an estimated weight of 100-pounds as their minimum. Many anglers will also choose not to keep blue sharks because their meat requires a lot of special handling and preparing to make it fit to eat, and many will also not keep large female thresher sharks because in the early season most are still carrying pups. Some anglers also choose to release rather large (300 lbs.) threshers and makos simply because the quality of meat in both is poor compared to that of younger fish.
After July 15, anglers may also keep one shark per day of the “large coastal” shark group which would include the blacktip, spinner, bull, tiger, and 3 species of hammerheads. The size limit for these sharks is also 54-inches except for the hammerheads which is 78-inches. Of all those sharks, about the only one that’s really worth eating is the blacktip, and since most blacktips landed around here are less than the minimum size, catching a “keeper” is a rare event. It should also be noted that many more spinner sharks are caught off Delmarva than blacktips, and since spinners have very prominent blacktips on their fins, anglers often confuse one species for the other. Spinners aren’t much when it comes to eating, so anglers who can tell the difference will usually not keep them for the table.
The one shark per boat limit does NOT mean “one shark per species.” Once a single shark from either the pelagic or large coastal group is landed, no more sharks from those groups can be kept. Hammerheads may not be kept if anglers also have a tuna, billfish or swordfish aboard. The aforementioned limits do not apply to the smooth or spiny dogfish sharks, or the little Atlantic sharpnose sharks that frequent Delmarva’s nearshore waters. Those species have a one shark per person limit, no closed season and they may be boated even if a large coastal or pelagic shark has been landed.
Another component to the shark management plan are the “prohibited species” which are sharks that may never be taken at any time, or of any size. This list includes a total of 21-species, but those that Delmarva anglers are most likely to encounter include the white shark, longfin mako, bigeye thresher, sand tiger, dusky, sandbar, angel, basking and bignose.
So, when someone asks me about “the possibility of bringing shark meat home from our charters,” I take the regulations and the food-value of the different species into account and typically explain to them: “Because of government regulations and the taste of some of the more common species, most, if not all, of the sharks we’re likely to catch on an average day will have to be released. If, however, we do happen to catch a “keeper” shark, it will probably be a mako over 100 lbs., a male thresher, a blacktip, dogfish or Atlantic sharpnose. No one should go shark fishing with a primary goal of bringing home a shark, otherwise they will likely be disappointed.”
Fortunately, I’ve found that the vast majority of anglers who wish to go shark fishing are primarily interested in the fun and experience of interacting with the different sharks that reside off Delmarva. Though most are glad they might have an option to bring home some shark steaks at the end of the day, they are perfectly OK with the thought that the trip will, in all likelihood, end up being totally catch-and-release.
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.