Anybody who’s extra than simply an occasional saltwater fisherman has virtually assuredly met the “taxman.” This nickname is supposed to explain any shark that steals a hooked fish (or a part of it) off an angler’s line. And with shark populations on the rise in lots of areas, it looks as if increasingly saltwater anglers throughout the East Coast are getting taxed.
Though sharks exist on all main coastlines, they’ve develop into particularly problematic within the Atlantic and Gulf Coast, the place many constitution captains say they’re shedding extra fish than ever earlier than. Various striped bass have fallen sufferer to sharks in Chesapeake Bay and the better New England space, whereas anglers within the Gulf are sometimes pushed out of their finest spots by the sharp-toothed predators.
The nice and cozy waters of the South appear to be a very troublesome area for fish-stealing sharks, and I’ve skilled this myself on at the least just a few events over time. I can bear in mind one current journey on the Mississippi coast, which is a good wade fishing space however one of the shark-infested locations I’ve ever fished. Six of us had been in chest deep water, catching one speckled trout after one other. Quickly a college of sharks confirmed up, their fins slicing by the floor and sending trout fleeing in each route.
Photograph by Bob McNally
The gang labored nearer and, when the 4- to 6-foot-long sharks began slamming our hooked trout mere ft from our rod suggestions, we lastly gave up and retreated to a seaside. That’s after we regarded down on the stringers hooked up to our wade belts and noticed that solely the trouts’ heads had been left. These fish had been devoured inside arm’s attain and we by no means even felt it.
Prowling the Shallows, Patrolling the Depths
Almost each constitution captain working within the Gulf of Mexico has a narrative like mine. Captain Mike Frenette fishes round Venice, Louisiana, the place the wealthy waters on the mouth of the Mississippi river draw super colleges of shrimp and baitfish, together with a large assortment of gamefish, together with cobia, tuna, dolphin, wahoo, and marlin. This additionally brings a staggering variety of sharks to the world, and Frenette says he’s seeing extra of them now than ever earlier than.
“Over the previous 10 years I’ve seen an incredible enhance in lots of shark species,” Frenette tells Out of doors Life. “They’re not solely in deep water on the mouth of the Mississippi River, however all through the shallow waters of the Delta.”
Frenette says he’s seen bull sharks ravaging redfish in water as shallow as two ft. And when he’s fishing for larger bull reds and tuna in deeper water, encounters with sharks are virtually a given.
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“There are locations on the mouth of the Mississippi the place large dusky, bull, and silky sharks assault possibly 80 p.c of the yellowfin [tuna] we hook,” Frenette says. “I’ve by no means seen the variety of sharks that we now have in coastal and offshore waters round Louisiana.”
Captains in different states all through the coastal South will inform you a similar. Offshore crews encounter taxmen every day, and the Florida Keys have about as many sharks as wherever else within the nation. Sharks there see loads of anglers, so it doesn’t take them lengthy to affiliate fishing boats with free meals.
“The sharks roaming ledges and reefs are skilled to return to fishing boats and grasp there ready for a simple meal,” says Capt. Joel Brandenburg, who runs Ana Banana Constitution Fishing in Marathon, Florida. “Feeding sharks with the fish we hook is an on a regular basis incidence for me and nearly each different constitution captain I do know within the Florida Keys.”
Spoiling Tournaments and Consuming World Data
Sharks consuming hooked gamefish is unhealthy information at any time when it happens, however there are occasions when it’s particularly problematic — each for anglers and the useful resource itself. On Friday, for instance, Florida held a one-day season for Atlantic snapper, with a NOAA-dictated restrict of 1 fish per angler as a result of Fed’s issues over fish populations.
Legions of sport anglers loaded their boats with gas, ice, deal with, and mates, after which headed offshore within the hopes of touchdown a single massive snapper per individual. Fishing was distinctive by most accounts, however sharks took a murderous toll, in keeping with many native anglers.
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“I’d wager my final greenback that everybody who fished off northeast Florida throughout that one-day snapper season had huge bother boating their hooked snapper, triggerfish, or grouper,” says Capt. Danny Patrick, a longtime offshore angler who fishes out of Jacksonville.
It’s uncertain whether or not any of these stolen fish would have damaged data, however that actual state of affairs performed out in July 2023, when Florida constitution captain Daniel Delph watched a consumer lose what might have been a world-record snapper to sharks. They had been fishing close to the Dry Tortugas, 75 miles off Key West, when the angler hooked a heavy fish some 300 ft down. Sharks bought to the snapper instantly, and by the point the angler reeled within the fish, the one factor left was an enormous crimson head.
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“Our greatest guess was that fish entire and intact was about 55 kilos,” Delph says. “It doubtless would have been an IGFA all-tackle file for crimson snapper, which is simply over 50 kilos.”
Delph says he remembers having troubles with sharks again within the 80s, 90s, and early aughts. However he explains that at this time, the issue is twice as unhealthy because it was again then, and he’ll typically have to maneuver areas or goal a distinct species when the taxmen transfer in.
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“We work onerous to keep away from sharks,” he says. “We by no means anchor, and we by no means fish greater than 10 or quarter-hour in a single spot. We’ve got to always transfer round to keep away from them.”
Some anglers have even misplaced cash to the pesky predators. Sharks are a relentless presence at most fishing tournaments, and the 65th annual Massive Rock Blue Marlin event out of Morehead Metropolis, North Carolina, was no exception. In June 2023, a staff of anglers competing within the tourney bought the frustration of their fishing lives after they weighed what would have been the most important marlin caught on the occasion.
That 619.4-pound blue marlin would have introduced them a $3.5 million payout. However event officers observed a shark chew close to the fish’s head, which routinely disqualified it.
Is It Time to Change Shark Administration?
Sharks have inhabited the oceans for for much longer than we’ve been fishing with rods and reels, and fishermen have at all times needed to pay the taxman every so often. However a lot of these anglers will inform you that the issue has gotten notably unhealthy in current a long time as a number of legal guidelines defending sharks from harvest have been enacted.
These laws had been made, partially, to steadiness out the damaging perceptions that folks held about sharks, and to stem the demand for shark fins overseas. Now, some anglers consider the restrictions have gone too far by changing scientific administration with protectionist ideologies. They are saying that shark populations have gotten uncontrolled within the absence of stress, they usually’d wish to see elevated of harvest of sure species — particularly bull sharks, that are one of many three shark species probably to assault a human, although assaults stay statistically uncommon.
“It doesn’t matter the place you’re, sharks are all over the place,” Delph says. “So many individuals suppose [all] sharks are endangered, however that’s not the case. It’s simply so irritating as a result of it’s devastating to our marine fisheries.”
Photograph by Bob McNally
Sharks are infamous for consuming hooked tarpon, one other world-renowned sport fish that’s a conservation precedence in lots of states. Consequently, these fish are virtually at all times launched, however that doesn’t imply they at all times swim approach.
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“The most important menace to my constitution fishing is when sharks assault tarpon [caught] my purchasers,” says Capt. Ray Markham, who fishes out of St. Petersburg and has a background in marine biology. “Yearly sharks comply with the northward tarpon migration. I see guys in waist deep water holding their tarpon for a photograph. You gained’t catch me in there as a result of I’ve seen 15-foot sharks — hammerheads, bulls, and others — that’ll take a tarpon out of your hand while you’re making an attempt to unhook and launch the fish.”
One other longtime and revered Florida information, Capt. Lenny Moffo remembers holding an estimated 100-pound tarpon boat facet one time so his consumer might get a photograph. Moffo pulled the tarpon’s head up as the image was snapped, however as quickly as he launched the fish there was an explosion of water, blood, and scales as a shark devoured the trophy fish.
I can bear in mind one outing close to the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, when two mates and I skilled a few of the finest tarpon fishing of our lives, catching 13 tarpon that weighed between 50 to 150 kilos. After shedding 4 of these enormous tarpon to taxmen, we give up fishing for the day, not eager to feed any extra high quality gamefish to the massive hammerheads and bull sharks that had been mendacity in wait.