What do we do about the proliferation of sharks??

[nantes]

the sharks didnt learn
there is just to many of them
why didnt they learn 5 years ago
there was never a problem before

[nico]

BTW, welcome to the forum Tom! 
 
I hope you will hang around and give us some fishing reports through the year, you know long before any of us when the different seasons start, would be great to learn from you.

[CLS]

Welcome Tom, my son had the same problem the other night, 10 hooked 1 on the boat, think he was near you, this  thing is out of control.    nothing one can do, making us all go  and    more. Tight lines.

[Libs]

the sharks didnt learn
there is just to many of them
why didnt they learn 5 years ago
there was never a problem before

Sharks have learnt - fishers in boats means tired exhausted semi-immobilized prey. This problem goes back to about 10 years ago - well that is when it became noticeable to scientists via reports from off-shore fishers. Who knows how long this has actually been surfacing as a problem. A pilot study which I have read was done by ORI and EKZNW in 2003 about this.....and they attributed some of the causes to learned behaviour (there were other issues identified). A new study is about to take off to try and see what else is causing the proliferation of sharks.

[tackle whore]

we have the same problem down here in the cape with kob and geelbek fish light youy get screwed only thing to do is to  pack away the fairy wands and use handlines , you seldom get eaten ,  that way you can catch more ,  sell illegally as a rec and fill your huge freezers and poacher compartments on your boats quicker  .

[zulu-X-treme]

You know you would think that nature itself would step in and limit the breeding structure of the Shark. You would think there would be a trigger of sorts as there are in other species. When the food source is down then breeding slows down to, but that's of course if the food source is limited. I think it has more to do with the link/association between the boats and the food.

The idea that the Sharks have learnt a new trick appeals to me, personally I think that's what is happening.

Just as an example ~ We were fishing a couple of miles North of Richards Bay about a year ago and it wasn't long after we started fishing (bottoms) and this massive turtle showed up. Well initially we thought it was just one of those things and tried to carry on fishing, well gents it proved almost impossible. Every single time you re-baited and 'went-down' the turtle would be on it. To the point where after losing way to much bait and having an equal amount of hooks straightened we decided to move. No sooner had we moved and the same turtle showed. We caught a few fish but that turtle basically ruined our day completely. I've since heard from other fisherman of similar reports of a turtle, whether it's the same one I'm not sure, but I think it's fair to assume that it might be.

So here to we possibly have another example of an animal that has figured out that boats/fishermen equal food...   

[John F]

That's really interesting zulu!

What kind of turtle was it?

What time of the year?

Which bait were you guys using?

[zulu-X-treme]

I don't know what kind of a turtle it was but all I know it was huge, the thing was massive... We were using big chunks of chokka and I'd say it was somewhere around the end of August beginning of September last year...

[John F]

From your description it could only be either a loggerhead or hawksbill. Hawksbills can get bigger than loggerheads (max size +/- 120 cm)... glad you guys didn't hook it... 

[zulu-X-treme]

I can tell you one thing it's not funny messing around with a short handled pair of pliers around a turtles beak trying to get hooks out... 

[sea sick]

i would still allow a turtle around the boat, as it has no danger towards me.

I can see that when we get some big sharks around the boat, i might Sh**  myself.

So the shark is rated as the apex predator........... Can anyone tell me, who is above the shark?
Who should, in nature maintain sharks levels? I think it might be
Zambi's, well they are doing a k''''k job if you ask me.

Ss

[John F]

@Sea sick

That would actually be correct (zambis, tigers, etc.) if nature would still be intact... big sharks would keep small sharks' population in control...

Now with all the long-lining and excessive fishing offshore where sharks are a large proportion of the bycatch, there is a "shortage" of large predators... what do you get? An explosion of small sharks! Let the big ones come back and you'll get the balance restored... problem is, they may never come back or they'll take a long time... 

[sea sick]

john f

Then it seems that we are getting somewhere, to understand, if there is indeed an imbalance and the reason to it.

Long lineing aint gonna stop.
So the imbalance will increase.

I think, that some guys would ultamately, resort to killing the sharks that are a nusense.
This might be kept quiet, in order not to be badmouthed on public forums etc.

If this is done, only after many years, will we see what implications our actions had.

Ss

[CASTSA]

We have been looking at this for some time,
 
And for those of you who think that the sharks don’t learn, please think again..Let me give you two examples:
 
1) At one destination we used to fish with Live Bonito and get smashed by the Black fins every bait when the fish were not wild, now the with the help of underwater cameras and divers with 30m viz, we have learnt that when you drive your boat onto the mark, the sharks follow suit, they stay deepish, and widish of the boat, obviously attracted by the noise of the engines, NOW we use live Bonnies they don’t eat them on the trawl, they have learnt that if they wait they will have a bigger meal....its absolutely bizarre!, they are so so intelligent.....
 
2) We were fishing off Durban the other night and obviously you get sharks with Dagas and Geelbek, they are attracted to the smell of those fish and in shoals they have a huge presence under the water, it was a pitch black night, lots of cloud and there was much fluorescence in the water so much that the wake behind the boat was awesome to see....As we got on to the mark, we stop and were getting the rods ready having a chat, honestly it looked like every shark in the area came to say hello, we had lomo lines filing in from all directions, 10 - 15 sharks all swimming towards the boat, and once they got to the boat they basically just swam around at about 10m under the boat waiting for a meal..
 
Guys to be honest, these fish have not with stood the test of time for no reason they learn to adapt to every situation and will continue to do so as an apex predator,
 
After many discussion with well decorated scientists from far and wide the common assumption is that the fish stocks are taking a severe knocking and are not at the same levels as years past, in this time the sharks, although it may feel that it has just got crazy over the past year, but these fish have been slowly adapting to survive. In this process, and the shear increase of boats in the water, these fish have learnt that they don’t need to go look at river mouths for mullet and grunter they now need to go to the reefs and wait for the buzzing noise of a motor and wait for a catch..........
 
As they in the past learnt to go to river mouths or where ever they have now learnt to go to the reefs and wait for a meal.....
 
We must never underestimate the intelligence of these fish, both sharks and fish......
 
 
My 2c............................its not their fault they are so BLADY CLEVER!!!

[zulu-X-treme]

My 2c............................its not their fault they are so BLADY CLEVER!!!

Excellent... 

[John F]

Angry recreational anglers may kill a few sharks on the beach... this is the kind of irrational approach that will get no where ... you have a rat problem (or any other similar pest), do you get rid of the problem by killing one rat at a time? If done over many years I can foresee governments going the other way around and actually banning recreational angling

The oceans' (and nature's) balance have been heavily disrupted over the last 100 years... it took a long time to get that balance... we're just seeing the tip of the problem now.... I promise you it will get much worse...

[sea sick]

time will tell.

Well said.

Ss

[Ziggy]

 
............................they are so BLADY CLEVER!!!

So clever that not even the Durban City Council can convince them to move into the new Moses Mabhida stadium!

Sorry, I could not resist that

[Half-Pint]

I think the shark nets have also had a major effect on the balance of nature. The population of large sharks has been largely wiped out which means that smaller sharks have really proliferated. Inshore I have noticed that at my main spot we went through a phase of almost no shad and blacktail but wild catches of small greys recently we have stopped catching greys but the shad have returned in greater numbers almost as if the grey population had eaten out its food source and died out somewhat allowing prey numbers to recover.

This idea of killing sharks appears to be a cover for simply killing the fish that bother you. You can never advocate people killing an animal for simply doing what comes naturally without a major scientific study into the effects of it.

[Toppie]

IMHO the answer for now is then to scale up a few degrees and get your catch on the boat much quicker, and no, not bottoms, we all know that they should not be targeted at all.