Shark fishing may be shut down in 2010

2131 Views 16 Replies 14 Participants Last post by Fishpicker, Mar 17, 2010

TurboDan

Discussion Starter · Feb 16, 2010

Rich Degener has an excellent article in the Press today on this situation. It's basically a paperwork oversight that will most likely lead to the loss of shark fishing this year. Personally, I don't fish for sharks, but plenty of people do and lots of money is at stake as far as the tournaments go.

Having covered the NJ legislature for the newspaper myself, I can tell you that I wouldn't hold out hope this will be sorted out any time soon. This is a coastal issue. The legislature is run by people from four counties - Hudson, Bergen, Essex and Camden. They care about the cities, not the coast. This is not a priority.

Here's the misery in print:

http://pressofatlanticcity.com/2dfdd8e4-1aa8-11df-a125-001cc4c03286.html

1 - 17 of 17 Posts

stripeman 103

· #2 · Feb 17, 2010

This is a real kick in the nuts. this year I was really going to start pursuing sharks I got wire leader circle hook and a great expensive setup. Hope this doesn't happen.

Blynch

· #3 · Feb 17, 2010

Yet another. This is geting crazy.

zar2754

· #4 · Feb 17, 2010

not happy
sharking is just too much fun...

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AKscuba713

· #5 · Feb 17, 2010

That means less money comm fishing and less fun rec fishing for me.... Thumbs down... I was hoping to snag and drop for a thresher this spring!!!

donzi and marie

· #6 · Feb 17, 2010

stripeman 103 said:
This is a real kick in the nuts. this year I was really going to start pursuing sharks I got wire leader circle hook and a great expensive setup. Hope this doesn't happen.

I'm right with ya on this one. Finally got the confidence to head offshore, for the toothy critters, and this happens. Whats next? They gonna shut down bluefish?

Sweet Melissa

· #7 · Feb 17, 2010

Sharks

What do you think the real reason that the former Governor let this shark fishing item sit for a few years on his desk? Doesn't make a whole hellava lot of sense.

Maybe because he didn't get to much support from Ocean/Atlantic/Monmouth Counties or maybe just because he was/is a flukin idiot.

Christie did clean up in Ocean, Atlantic, Monmouth in his recent win. I feel positive that the chubby guy won't let his peeeps down.:thumbsup:

Sterling Tackle

· #8 · Feb 17, 2010

Yeah I saw this in the Press.:nuts: It did sound as if there were room to change it by the time the sharks get here.

Fishpicker

· #9 · Feb 17, 2010

Sterling Tackle said:
Yeah I saw this in the Press.:nuts: It did sound as if there were room to change it by the time the sharks get here.

The time line is get shorter and shorter They need to stay on top of this May 1 will be here before we know it. I have to agree with everything Marty said in that article.

phillyfishing

· #10 · Feb 17, 2010

Fishpicker said:
The time line is get shorter and shorter They need to stay on top of this May 1 will be here before we know it. I have to agree with everything Marty said in that article.

lol lol lol marty is right on

if they shut it down it aint going to stop me from sharking.. just guess it will be 100% catch and release... but i do not want that at all

Fish Poison

· #11 · Feb 17, 2010

zar2754 said:
not happy
sharking is just too much fun...

Anyone interested in solving a mystery? I had a mount of a mako that was from the fins forward to the head. About 5'long, mouth open like you see in this photo. It was stolen, or accidently taken from out side my store about 5 years ago. Somebody has it. Please return, it was the only friend I had.

TurboDan

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 19, 2010

Sweet Melissa said:
What do you think the real reason that the former Governor let this shark fishing item sit for a few years on his desk? Doesn't make a whole hellava lot of sense.

Maybe because he didn't get to much support from Ocean/Atlantic/Monmouth Counties or maybe just because he was/is a flukin idiot.

Christie did clean up in Ocean, Atlantic, Monmouth in his recent win. I feel positive that the chubby guy won't let his peeeps down.:thumbsup:

Eh, it's not that Corzine (or any other legislator) wants to "punish" the Shore counties as much as they simply don't care about them. The leadership in both houses of our legislature are old school members of the North Jersey political machine (honorable mention to the smaller Camden machine) and their goal is urban development and funding and not much else.

Also, fishing issues get particularly pushed to the back burner because none of these people have any interest in fishing or the outdoors in general. If it doesn't make money for the state's general fund, it's a worthless issue in Trenton. It's not so much the local legislators as it is the Senate/Assembly leadership - all grown from the same mold of North Jersey (and Camden

) politics.

I highly doubt Sheila Oliver [D-East Orange] or Steve Sweeney [D-Camden], the two present heads of the state's legislative bodies, have gone shark fishing at any point.

Sweet Melissa

· #13 · Feb 19, 2010

TurboDan said:
Eh, it's not that Corzine (or any other legislator) wants to "punish" the Shore counties as much as they simply don't care about them. The leadership in both houses of our legislature are old school members of the North Jersey political machine (honorable mention to the smaller Camden machine) and their goal is urban development and funding and not much else.

Also, fishing issues get particularly pushed to the back burner because none of these people have any interest in fishing or the outdoors in general. If it doesn't make money for the state's general fund, it's a worthless issue in Trenton. It's not so much the local legislators as it is the Senate/Assembly leadership - all grown from the same mold of North Jersey (and Camden ) politics.

I highly doubt Sheila Oliver [D-East Orange] or Steve Sweeney [D-Camden], the two present heads of the state's legislative bodies, have gone shark fishing at any point.

That makes sense.

hattrickll

· #14 · Feb 19, 2010

As AKscuba said, What do you think this will do to he charter guys
Comms, etc
Who's going to spend that kind of money to catch and release?
This S__KS.

Captain's John & Diana

· #15 · Feb 19, 2010 (Edited)

My response about sharking at least the charter boat part

First I agree 100% about our elected officials in Trenton caring nothing about little about what happens unless it contributes to the states general funds. Having lived down at the shore now for over 20 years I am always amazed why route 55 has not been completed to run down to the Parkway and we have seen so many deaths and serious injuries on 347 and 47 with head-on collisions ect. In addition the horrible traffic jams every Sunday afternoon with so many folks heading back on these roads to PA ECT. You could throw in route 40 going from the 55 up to the Delaware Memorial Bridge as that road has claimed their share of lives also over the years. If the elected legislators do not care about people dying on their outdated roads in South Jersey how much do you think they care about fishing in general and especially shark fishing.

From a charter point of view I do not think it will impact us personally too much as we hardly get anymore spring shark charters anyways. We used to do anywhere from 12 up to 18 shark charters every spring but not anymore. It has gotten down to just fishing the tournaments mostly with a lot more Black Drum trips at least when they run into early June. The shark charters started to disappear when the regulations were changed to one fish per day and the Makos started to become much scarcer from what it was 10 years ago. You can throw in how many small Makos we catch these days that we do not kill and it has become very tough to find one over 150 lbs and overall you need to run a ways offshore to have a chance at a quality Mako and this just increases the cost of a charter to the point not as many anglers want to spend that kind of money to catch little 60-90 lb Makos that all should be released in my opinion. The other thing that hurt just as much was the cost to go on a shark charter increased as fuel prices kept going up and this did not help as many anglers did not want to pay the higher prices to in reality only be able to keep one shark. We do not target Threshers on our boat and I know this hurt our business but I do not like killing them since so many have pups in them and most of our customer base from past years were experienced shark fishermen that feel the same way plus they really do not like eating them compared to Makos. The big advantage to Threshers you can catch them close to shore and they do get big but I just hate to see pups all over the dock when they are hung up to weigh and most of our past customer base that used book shark trips with us every year shark feel pretty much the same way. Again I know it has hurt our business in recent years but I talk to some very good shark fishermen that have been doing this for over 30 years plus and they also know longer do anywhere near the number of shark charters compared to 10-15 years ago or they have just plain gotten away from any inshore sharking altogether except maybe at night in the deep canyons targeting a really big short fin Mako on their overnight trips.
I still enjoy fishing the shark tournaments and not only the big money ones but the ones for fun as well. Been doing it for a many years now and only hope for those that enjoy sharking that we have a season this coming year.

We are an active participant in the Apex Predator Tag & Release Program run by the NMFS out of Narragansett, RI and will be tagging up to 40-50 sharks with quite a few well over 150 lbs this coming season of various species to help gather better scientific data about sharks. We catch and release a lot of sharks every season fishing both of the mid-Atlantic Coast and down in the winter off Morehead City, NC so we hope our efforts will contribute to a better understanding of sharks and their migration patterns ect.

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TUNANATOR

· #16 · Mar 16, 2010

The Atlantic States Commission was to make a recommendation on compliance by 16-Mar to the NMFS and then a decision was to be made (they do have 6 months to make the call). Anyone hear anything?

Fishpicker

· #17 · Mar 17, 2010

TUNANATOR said:
The Atlantic States Commission was to make a recommendation on compliance by 16-Mar to the NMFS and then a decision was to be made (they do have 6 months to make the call). Anyone hear anything?

Nothing yet

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