Throughout the ages, many people have been terrified of sharks of all kind. No matter the species, size, or location people have always been had the kill or be killed attitude with these predators. Sadly, this also includes the humble and extremely safe whale shark, that only eats small fish and krill, just like the blue whale. Because of this view we humans have of sharks, I find I enjoy studying them and enlightening people to how they really are.
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Mustad hooks of different sizes. These ones are J hooks,
because they are shaped like the letter J. |
While researching for my project, and based on what I did in the passed, I found that there are lot of different ways to catch any type of shark. The most common way is just a regular fishing pole with a hook and bait. Since there are a lot of local fishers, many people will catch fish, as well as sharks, just by regular day to day fishing. In some instances, like tournaments set specifically for sharks, there are particular types of gear. Some of those include: PowerPro 80-pound test braided onto a reel
(pound test indicates the maximum pound tension at which the line should/may break, although it does not indicate the maximum weight of a fish that can be caught (#1)), light weight, heavy duty rods like "Shimano Terez TZCX66XXH rods", a belt and harness to latch the rod into allowing more control of reeling in the catch instead of fighting to hold the rod while reeling in, and Mustad 7699d hooks which come in a variety of sizes depending on what the catch is (hooks can either be J hooks or circle hooks also depending on the target catch). (#2)
With this information, it is determined that finding the proper hooks and line will help catch some of the larger sharks that may be caught throughout this experiment.
After finding that we will be fishing from piers and off the beach at a few different locations, yet to be established for specifics but definitely including the Inlet on both the Daytona and New Smyrna sides, and using King Mackerel (or very similar) as our bait, we can catch a decent variety of species and sizes of sharks. We will tag smaller sharks with small barbed tags such as the one pictured here:
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Small shark tags that eventually fall off due to age,
heavy swimming, or other environmental factors. |
Larger sharks will get heavier duty tags that require more effort to attach almost like the tags that are seen on livestock, like a permanent earring but in the case of a shark, is attached to the dorsal fin (I am uncertain as to the tags that I will receive yet, but it is being worked on).
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Anatomic Structure of a shark including the precaudal notch, or pit,
and at the pelvic fin showing claspers for a male,
which a female does not have. |
As of the methods, there are student volunteers that would like to help in the catching process. On certain given days, we will determine the location at which the fishing will start. Recording the Latitude and Longitude of every location as well as environmental factors that might help determine future locations such as air temperature, water temperature, tides coming in or going out, rain, cloud coverage, and possibly salinity and dissolved oxygen (which is highly important because too low dissolved oxygen means that the sharks will not be able to "breathe" properly in that water). Once a specimen is caught the weight, precaudal notch length (before the tail fin, there is a little notch), fork length (the area where the tail fin splits and is at its shortest point from the nose), and total length (from the nose to the tip of the top half of the tail as is would be when relaxed in the water), gender, and species will all be recorded. From there, the tag number will be recorded with all of this data so when attached to the shark, the tag will be its "name". From there, the specimens will be carefully released back into the water. Afterwards, we wait and find out if anyone catches that shark and relays the information that is placed on the tag, which gives us how long after tagging it has been, where it was caught, and its same measurements after the initial tagging has happened.
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Just typed in Daytona Beach Shark Fishing and this came up.
Showing how big some local sharks can really get. |
Citations:
1. Schultz, Ken (updated 2015, Nov 02). "What Does "Pound-Test" Mean on a Fishing Line Label".
About Sports. http://fishing.about.com/od/Fishing-Line/fl/What-Does-Pound-Test-Mean- on-a-Fishing-Line-Label.htm
2, Shunke, Dave (2013, June 26). Shark Fishing: A Beginner's Guide.
On The Water.
http://www.onthewater.com/how-to-shark-fish-a-beginners-guide/
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