California Shark Fishing and the IGFA

As a commercial shark diving operator and a shark conservationist I am unsure how long the IGFA can continue to run with a catch and kill model for record holding with sharks.

It would seem easy enough to apply a set of new catch and release standards for records that were incentivised by the fishing industry. Perhaps if the IGFA added a new category with an iPhone app that allowed fishermen to instantly record and send in their virtual catches...at sea?

The IGFA will soon find themselves in direct conflict with a host of newer and more activist shark conservation groups should they choose to stick to catch and kill modelling with sharks.

The ocean environment of 2010 is a different place from 1939 when the IGFA came into existence.

Perhaps now is the time for new thinking, and new directions?

Video here.

Shark Survivability 0% To 80%

A very large percentage of "shark fishermen" are in fact "accidental fishermen" - like these fine examples from New Jersey.

After watching this video shark conservation folks can do two things:

1. Get angry and rail at all shark fishermen.

2. Produce the tools for shark survivability.

A series of well placed informational videos highlighting catch and release techniques with real sharks would "educate fishermen" how to save sharks. The fishermen in this video unknowing killed this animal. They just lacked any clear idea how to deal with a shark, from gaffing, to hook removal.

With an industry leader like, Guy Harvey, and the backing of the IGFA, these videos would do more for sport caught shark survivability then most efforts currently being promoted.

Education is the golden key to sport caught sharks.

As shark conservation folks why don't we lead this issue instead of reacting to it? Any takers?

Mako shark haul could be record catch

To prevent scenes like these industry leadership will have to happen.

Starting with the IGFA who should cease record keeping for the following species of sharks by 2010:

1. Tiger
2. Mako
3. Hammerhead
4. Bull
5. Blue
6. Thresher

These are the primary species caught in shark tournaments across the USA.

As long as records continue to be kept the industry will have no reason to modify tournaments that kill sharks for sport.

While the rest of the sport fishing industry are beginning to talk shark conservation, leadership begins at the top.

Let's start by asking the IGFA to lead that change:

Captain Tom King, Captain Taylor Sears, and the Mayo family from Dartmouth – Bob, Pamela, Ian and Elizabeth – returned to the Mill Wharf Marina in Scituate with a 624-pound male mako shark, believed to be the largest of its kind ever caught and brought to shore.

“We hooked up a nice tuna, probably 160 or 170 pounds,” Sears said. “It started coming up to the surface a little weird. The tuna popped up, and there was a mako shark right behind it eating its tail off. You could see it come up, maybe 100 feet off the back of the boat.

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