Sharks Sharks Everywhere!

As the years have passed since commercial long lining has come to an end in Florida, our statewide shark populations have increased greatly! For charters like ours that specifically target sharks, this has been a great thing, but as the saying goes, sometimes too much of a good thing is never good. Although our specific location here along the Nature Coast has a very balanced ecosystem due to our highly protected coastline, there are many places like Southeast Florida that are seeing numbers of Bull Sharks explode. Captains are estimating that 50% of the fish being caught now are be taken by sharks before they even get to the surface. 50% is a high number even for the "taxman". I personally think that we are missing the mark when it comes to management. On land, we manage very specific areas of woods, for very specific species of animals on very specific dates of the year, but on the water we are implementing broad "statewide" regulations for sharks which I believe might be the biggest issue. Florida is a BIG state! What happens in Crystal River, has absolutely nothing to do with what happens in Miami. They are located on two totally different coasts and hundreds of miles apart. In most places in the U.S. that would put you in a different state by the time you drove that far. The State of Florida implements Snook, Trout and Redfish regulations that cater to specific concerns along specific coastlines and the same should be done for sharks. Why that is not being done remains to be seen. With the amount of charter businesses being affected and now even tourism due to the recent shark attacks in Destin, it is just a matter of time before someone steps up and demands a change. The questions is, will that change be a knee jerk reaction or a data driven solution? Although we love to see lots of sharks in the water for Shark Ventures, we also realize that a lack of balance in local shark populations can have a devastating effect on certain fisheries for years to come. If the OVER population or lack of habitat of certain species like the bull shark continues to go unchecked in these specific areas, it will cause even more problems for other fish species and eventually even the sharks themselves. In any other ecosystem on earth, if the predator/prey populations go extremely out of balance, we always see dire consequences that affect both sides of that equation. Effective management is key! We can not bow to the pressure of people who look at marine management through an emotional lens. Believing that occasionally harvesting a retainable species of shark in the state of Florida is somehow contributing to the global extinction of "Sharks" is not data driven, it is emotional. We also cannot continue to categorize all shark species into one big collective group called "SHARKS". Not harvesting an occasional Blacktip that you would like to eat, does nothing to help the decreasing numbers of threatened or endangered species worldwide. Not fishing for Sharks in Florida, does nothing to help stop shark "FINNING" in China. A despicable practice. Though management needs to be local and targeted, the decreasing numbers of shark populations globally should not affect states like Florida who have reversed that trend and are seeing record numbers of certain sharks statewide. Florida is an example of what can be done to bring shark numbers back. Florida has been declared a Sustainable Shark Fishery by NOAA because we have done an amazing job of returning shark numbers to high levels, but statewide we must get more targeted in our management practices. This can be done effectively and can insure that our local fisheries are in a state of balance especially in areas that need it the most. We will continue to do our part in tagging sharks for GrayFishTag which is an excellent organization that offers all of their collected data to any person or organization who would like to access it free of charge. We tag a lot of sharks every season and hope that we can keep our shark numbers high for generations to come, but not so high that other species of fish or charter operators pay too high of a price for that lack of balance. That imbalance will eventually lead to the sharks own detriment. We've done it before and we can do it again. Lets find a science based solution to this problem and attack it with real numbers and real data. If you would like to tag a shark of your own and help contribute to the data used in addressing an important issue such as this, contact us today! We would love to get you out there! - Captain Ed