This mako shark caught on June 3, 2013 off the coast of California weighed in at 1,323.5 pounds.
Photograph by Richard Vogel, AP Photo
Brian Clark Howard
Record-Breaking Mako Shark Tips Off Conservation Debate
Anglers spark controversy after hauling in a massive shark in California.
On
Monday, a group of anglers from Texas, Colorado, and California hooked
a colossal fish off Southern California. After a long struggle, they
reeled in a shortfin mako shark that they say tipped the scale at 1,323.5 pounds (600 kilograms).
The
shark is 11 feet (3.3 meters) long and 8 feet (2.4 meters) in
diameter, Kent Williams, a certified weight master at New Fishall Bait
Company in Gardena, California, told the Los Angeles Times.
The massive mako was caught by a team of professional hunters and
fishers who produce reality television for the Outdoor Channel. The
three-day, deep-sea excursion was being filmed for the show Jim Shockey's The Professionals, a program that aims to document the lives of Outdoor Channel crew.
The anglers are storing their catch in a deep-freeze locker in Gardena, and they are applying for a world record from the
International Game Fish Association.
The certification process is expected to take around two months,
because the fishing group needs time to analyze the specimen and tackle
used and to interview eyewitnesses.
The previous
record holder for a mako was a 1,221-pound (554-kilogram) catch made in
July 2001 off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts.
Corey Knowlton, a co-host of The Professionals
and an expedition guide, told National Geographic that the team had
spent 30 to 40 days on the water over the past four years looking for a
big mako to take. A few days ago, Knowlton and the other anglers had
been trying their luck about 15 miles (24 kilometers) off Huntington
Beach, by dropping chopped mackerel and ground chum into the water.
They
were rewarded with the sight of fins slicing the water, so they tossed
out giant hooks. One took, and the team spent two and a half hours of
"struggling, slipping, and sliding" to bring in the creature, according
to published reports.
"They fight really hard, it was a
very aggressive predator," said Knowlton. "It was trying to eat the
birds and everything around it. It took the bait immediately and ran,
ran, ran."
Knowlton added that the big fish jumped out
of the water five times. "When it first jumped we all screamed, we were
going crazy," he said.
Crew member Jason Johnston, who
lives in Mesquite, Texas, climbed into a harness to work the fish. He
described the scene to the Times as "mayhem" and "the scariest thing I've ever done in my life."
Knowlton
said the group had caught several makos up to 900 pounds (408
kilograms) over the past few years, but their goal had been to catch
something over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms), to have something sizable
to donate to science. "They haven't had one this big. So we were really,
really excited to finally see it, it was a giant behemoth."
Knowlton
said Mary Blasius at the University of California, Long Beach, is
excited to examine the specimen, and that the team has also reached out
to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A mold is also being made.
Mako Science
Suzanne
Kohin, a shark biologist at the NOAA lab in La Jolla, California, told
National Geographic that her agency has been in touch with the anglers
about the shark. "Samples will be valuable to us, because we have a
hard time accessing these large individuals," she said.
"We
prefer to tag and release them, to study their movement patterns, but
it is useful to sample. We may learn something about its reproductive
status or foraging ecology," she added. (Related: "
100 Million Sharks Killed Every Year.")
Kohin
said the mako is most likely a female because males rarely reach a
size bigger than 600 pounds (272 kilograms). She said it is likely over
15 years old, although testing is needed to confirm. Kohin added that
shortfin makos are relatively common off Southern California, where
females often give birth to pups in a "nursery."
"It is
very rare for us to find these large makos—although of anyone,
recreational fishers are the ones to catch them," said Kohin. She added
that government surveys tend to use smaller hooks, and such large
sharks may be powerful enough to bite through commercial drift nets or
wriggle off longlines.
Makos tend to stay out in the
open ocean, feasting on small fish like mackerel and sardines, so they
rarely interact with people. They are among the fastest of all sharks.
Fishermen routinely catch makos up to six feet (two meters) long.
The
fishermen have pointed out that their big catch left them well within
their legal state limit of two makos a day. But that doesn't mean their
success hasn't touched a nerve in the conservation community.
Conservationists Speak Out
Marine biologist, author, and advocate
Carl Safina
told National Geographic that he still loves the excitement of fishing
for makos, although he switched to catch and release around 15 years
ago.
"I think we should be long past the point where
killing such a creature should be talked about so breathlessly, using
words like 'historic' and other hype," said Safina. "It doesn't 'make
history' for the animal involved, it ends it."
Voicing similar concern, ocean advocate and author David Helvarg of
Blue Frontier Campaign
said, "If someone just claimed the record for shooting the largest
elephant ever shot in Africa, people would be appalled. Apparently too
many people haven't made that connection with endangered top predator
'game fish.'"
Helvarg added that people have fished out
an estimated 90 percent of the ocean's largest fish, and there are
indications that some fish species are genetically downsizing in
response to that pressure. "CPR—catch, photograph, and release—might
have stressed this monster of the deep, but it also would have left it
to breed and feed and also left us with a sense of awe and respect
knowing it was still out there," said Helvarg.
The shortfin mako is not on the endangered species list, but the species is considered "vulnerable" by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN). According to Kohin, not much is known about the mako's
population status off California. "We don't know if it is in trouble or
not," she said, adding that scientists hope to work on a survey in
2014.
The most recent federal regulation, the
Pacific Council's Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan,
allows for a total of 150 metric tons of mako to be harvested a year
by a combination of commercial and recreational interests, Kohin said.
According to a
2010 report,
the estimated average catch of both the commercial and recreational
fisheries combined for the prior five years (2005-2009) was 53 metric
tons, well below the 150-metric-ton harvest guideline, although there is
uncertainty in the catch estimates, particularly the recreational
numbers.
Still, Kohin said, "Removing a
reproductive-age female is not a good idea. With any shark that is late
to mature and produces few pups, they are much more vulnerable." She
said makos don't reach maturity until ages 8 to 15 years, older than
many other species in the area.
Defending his team's
catch, Knowlton said, "There have been studies that say those sharks are
on the increase. We never have any trouble finding sharks, some days we
see eight or 10 or more, so there are a lot out there."
To Safina, killing any sharks at a time when they face intense global pressure from the
fin trade and death as
bycatch
in commercial fisheries sends the wrong message to people, many of whom
still view sharks as brainless killers. "Whether killing one very,
very successful individual giant animal will harm the population isn't
the whole issue," he said.
Catch and Release?
Laleh Mohajerani, a National Geographic grantee who heads the board of
Pescadores y Tiburones,
a group that promotes shark conservation in Mexico's Baja California,
said she was saddened to hear of the death of such a large marine
animal.
"We are fishing out all the large species, so
when you see an animal that is that remarkable and had such amazing
survival to make it that big, you feel, why was it not released?" asked
Mohajerani. "It's like if we were to discover a dinosaur and then kill
it because we wanted to hunt it.
"Some people say
'they are not endangered,' 'we don't fish that many,' and all these
other excuses," Mohajerani continued. "But IUCN says they are
vulnerable, so we have to err on the side of caution."
Mohajerani
added that many sportfishers care about the environment, and she
pointed to growing interest in catch and release methods, especially
when it comes to slow-reproducing fish like sharks.
For
his part, Knowlton said, "We really care about these animals. We realize
there is no old folks' home for sharks. That shark is going to die and
no one is going to know anything about it. By going out there and taking
the animal, getting it to a freezing facility, getting it to the correct people, that is getting the most out of this animal."
He
added that being able to analyze the fish's brain and other parts may
provide insight into mercury and other toxin accumulation. He said the
same data would not have been available if the group had released it. He
added that the boat's captain, Matt Potter, had tagged and released
many sharks over the years, starting when he was a teenager.
Perhaps putting it more bluntly, Kent Williams, who weighed the mako, told the
Los Angeles Times, "It's all part of the food chain. If they were endangered, they wouldn't allow us to fish them."
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
