New Jersey Shark Season

[SJ-Rick]

I know there has been much chatter in the newspapers and on the boards about a potential shark moratorium in New Jersey. The feds and the state have just reached an agreement.

I have spoken to both NMFS and New Jersey. We WILL be having a modified shark season in NJ and it WILL allow most recreational fisherman and tournaments to have a fairly normal season.

The agreement is this -

There will be a prohibition on "Large Coastal Sharks" effective May 15th. The "Large Coastal Sharks" group includes - black tip, silky, spinner, bull, tiger, lemon, nurse, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, and smooth hammerhead

There will be a prohibition on "Pelagic Sharks" effective on July 30th, unless New Jersey is in full compliance by that date. The "Pelagic" group includes - shortfin mako, porbeagle, thresher, oceanic whitetip, and blue shark

The federal "Prohibited Species" list is extended to include state waters. The "Prohibited Species" - Atlantic angel, Basking, Bigeye sand tiger, Bigeye sixgill, Bigeye thresher, Bignose, Bluntnose sixgill, Reef, Caribbean sharpnose, Dusky, Galapagos, Longfin mako, Narrowtooth, Night, Sand Tiger, Sandbar, Sharpnose sevengill, Smalltail, Whale and White.

What all this means is that recreational anglers will still have the main targets of Makos, Blues, and Threshers available during the June and July fishing season. We have occasionally seen Tiger, Bulls, and Hammerheads at the tournaments. They will, of course, be ineligible for prizes this year.

[Big Jay]

I am interested in hearing the specific provisions on this. However, I am not disappointed. Sharks have been in a very sad state. I really hope something similar applies to the comms.

[SJ-Rick]

Jay, my understanding is that the agreement doesn't address recreational versus commercial, meaning that it will apply to both groups equally.

[Big Jay]

Jay, my understanding is that the agreement doesn't address recreational versus commercial, meaning that it will apply to both groups equally.

Well thats slightly refreshing. I wonder if this will allow for a comm "by-catch" provision like sea bass.

[Deep C]

Rick
Good to know we'll have at least an abbreviated season... Good that they are tightening up without slamming the door all the way... Thanks for the update...

[SJ-Rick]

I should add that New Jersey very much thinks they will be in full compliance by July 30, meaning no closure at all for the pelagics.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Wow! That sounds like good news for the Jersey recs and the sharks. Possibly one of those rare "win/wins"? I sure hope so!

I personally am glad that so many of the other, non-pelagic species are going to be protected. Frankly, I shuddered each time I saw picts of big tigers and maybe even hammers being killed in shark tournaments and hung up, then trashed. I, for one, am glad to see that ending.

A possible negative would have been the loss of the fall season, which some have discovered can be a great time to fish the makos and threshers. Sounds like, if Jersey will indeed be in compliance by then, you folks will be back to pretty much a "regular" season. That's good news, indeed, especially after all of the fears of a possible complete shutdown. Good going to all involved in bringing this resolution about!

Among the good things here is (seemingly) the fact that fishing for Large Coastals and Prohibitive species is still possible (?), but their taking is not. The way we have always chummed - power chumming and bait and switching them - has allowed us to totally discriminate on what species and even size sharks we choose to catch.

In our case, the main species we avoid are blue sharks, plus the occasional tiger or hammer. This was especially critical when tournament fishing, where those species do not count, but messing around with them by "blind fishing" would have resulted in a lot of valuable tournament time wasted on fish that had no meaning as far as the results were concerned. Ditto as far as bait stealing and destroying dogfish and bluefish are concerned. Sorry, but that sort of thing makes no sense whatsoever to me or the very sharp tournament sharkers I'm bud's and business associates with.

Even when it comes to actually wanting to catch some blues, power chumming and bait & switch trolling are more effective and more fun for when we had clients or friends who did want to "just catch a shark" and a blue would do until one of "the kind" showed up. In this case, we could size up the blues, pick out a big one, bait him with a lighter outfit that would maximize the fun of catching it, and have a happy angler who got a good fight out of his first shark. All good and, in fact, good practice fighting a large fish for when the right kind did show up...unless it was a thresher. No blue shark that I have ever seen can prepare you for the way those ass-kickers fight!

I hope that everything about this keeps going in a positive direction for you guys.

[SJ-Rick]

I'm very pleased with the resolution as well Fred. I also think that the rules NJ ultimately releases WILL allow some take of the Large Coastals, they are a federally legal catch after all. I have heard mention of a pupping closure that might run from May 15 to July 15, but after that they would become a fair catch again. But again we'll see what NJ decides based on the guidance of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

My post was mostly about the 2010 season and what the feds had decided to do about because I had a number of people speculating whether we would even be having a tournament this year.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Thanks for the heads up, Rick.

Good luck with the tournament.

[marlinrojo]

Well it's will be about time Jersey comes into compliance . I wish they would of closed the season completely for this season. Due to Jersey's reckless behavior regarding compliance with sharks. This is WAAAAYY to lenient.