Sharks are biting anglers within the Gulf of Mexico, but culling is unlikely to assist

Fishermen throughout the Gulf of Mexico are reporting that something is eating fish from their lines. What is responsible? Many recreational anglers point the finger at sharks.

This conflict has attracted the eye of politicians. Congress has National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationwhich regulates fishing in US waters, Reviewing shark and dolphin interactions with fisheriesand the US House of Representatives recently passed the SHARKED Lawwhich might establish a task force to resolve the difficulty.

I even have investigated this conflict, which officially called lootingover the past decade. While some shark populations within the Gulf of Mexico, resembling bull sharks, are increasing, my colleagues and I even have found evidence that human perception can be a vital factor.

Shark-rich waters

There are greater than 70 species of sharks within the Gulf of Mexico – and these are only those known to scientists. Shark research has increased dramatically in recent many years, and recent species are still being discovered.

For example American Pocket Sharkwhich is literally pocket-sized, was only discovered in 2019. This tiny shark lives in deep water removed from the shore and secretes a brilliant blue liquid from small “pocket” glands near its front flippers, for a purpose that science has yet to make clear.

Many other species, including Bull sharks And Sandbar sharksoccur in coastal waters. This has the potential to cause conflict with anglers.

Sharks preying on captured fish is nothing recent. In Ernest Hemingway's 1952 Pulitzer Prize-winning novella “The Old Man and the Sea“, an ageing Cuban fisherman attempts to catch a large marlin, only to observe it get eaten by sharks on his way home.

Hemingway himself to fight with shark plagues when he tried to land a bluefin tuna in Bimini, Bahamas. Kip Farrington, a long-time Field & Stream The magazine editor and Hemingway confidant noted that “none of these magnificent fish has ever been landed near Bimini without sharks leaving their mark.” Today, anglers often check with sharks as “tax collectors.”

Humans hunt sharks

Sharks have been commercially fished within the Gulf because the Thirties. Catches increased during World War II, partly because shark livers is utilized in the production of vitamin Aand declined after 1950 with the event of synthetic vitamins.

In the Nineteen Eighties, shark catches rose sharply again, encouraged by federal regulators who classified sharks as “underutilized resource.” But inside a decade, scientists found that several Gulf shark populations were overfished, including sandbar sharks and dark sharks.

In 1993, NOAA published the primary federal fisheries management plan for sharks in U.S. Atlantic waters, including the Gulf of Mexico. These regulations created a path to rebuilding stocks by requiring permits and setting limits on recreational fishing and industrial catch quotas.

Today, lots of the overfished shark populations within the Gulf get betterWith growing evidence that sharks are a vital component of healthy oceans, it is a conservation success story. Many anglers blame the rise in raids on the regulations adopted to revive shark populations.

Changed baselines

Experts agree that there are more sharks within the Gulf of Mexico today than there have been 30 years ago. But how do these populations compare to numbers before 1989, when industrial shark fishing skyrocketed?

Over time, this query becomes harder to reply as people regularly accept the decline of the environment. Marine biologist Daniel Pauly calls this habituation “Shifting baseline syndrome.” In fisheries, each recent generation of fishermen accepts the present, often reduced state of a fish population as a baseline, forgetting that there was a time when these species were rather more abundant.

In this case, modern anglers are comparing the rise in shark populations within the Gulf of Mexico to the last 30 years – a time when many shark populations were overfished.

Raising baselines

The recovery of populations that were once overfished can result in the other situation, often known as Raising baselineswith conservation and management efforts resulting in a rise within the population.

Cases where populations have been overfished after which rebuilt can create the impression of abundance. If the recovering species is a predator, this may result in human-wildlife conflict.

For example, the recovery of populations of California sea lions are actually competing with fishermen for his or her catch along the Pacific coast. Off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the identical is occurring with Grey seals and harbor sealsThe seals in turn are Attracting great white sharks.

The call for culling

Sport fishing is a popular and lucrative year-round industry over the Gulf of Mexico. With increasing reports of looting, calls for Decimation of shark populations.

Similar measures have been proposed elsewhere for other marine predators, including Sea lions in California And Giant groupers in Florida.

However, studies show that Removing predators isn’t an efficient strategy. It is especially ineffective for species resembling sharks, which move around quite a bit and simply recolonize areas which have already been slaughtered. The slaughter of predators also brings individuals with different values ​​together, resembling fishing boat operators and environmentalists. against one another.

Paying the tax authorities

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to shark predation. The sport fishing industry within the Gulf has grown, and it is probably going that sharks are learning associate the presence of boats with a lightweight meal.

Shark defense can be found and recent versions are continuously being developed. Some fishermen are changing their practices to avoid sharks – for instance frequent changes of location and never anchorage or Fishing further offshore to avoid coastal species resembling bull sharks.

NOAA-funded research has identified sandbar sharks and bull sharks because the species that Prey most frequently on catchThe agency is analyzing ways to raised measure the overexploitation of those two species and determine their population levels with the intention to understand their population trends.

In my view, measures like these, together with higher data on which sharks are affecting fishermen and where, are probably the most promising ways to assist anglers coexist with sharks within the Gulf.