Saving Seafood

Are sharks a rising threat to fishermen?

July 1, 2024 — Over the years, scientists have studied sharks and their habits. The popularity of learning about them has grown significantly thanks to the annual broadcast of Shark Week on Discovery Channel, which airs July 7, 2024. Multiple sources have proven that the species has learned to associate boat engines with food. According to Live Science, sharks have been feasting on fish caught by humans in the Gulf of Mexico.

Instances of shark depredation in the region have substantially increased over the past decade, according to a shark scientist at Mississippi State University, Marcus Drymon. “Although difficult to demonstrate empirically, it does appear that there is a shift in behavior,” he told the publication.

Shark depredation occurs when a shark partially or entirely eats or damages hooked or netted fish before fishermen can remove them from the water. Researchers have investigated the reasons behind the increase in depredation, finding that more sharks, more anglers, and learned behavior are the leading factors.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Shark Week: Celebrating U.S. Science and Sustainability

July 29, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

If you love sharks like we do, join us in celebrating Shark Week 2019! Did you know that sharks are one of the top ocean predators? They play an important role in the food web, helping to ensure balance in the ocean’s ecosystem.

We manage commercial and recreational shark fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean and we work with three regional fishery management councils to conserve and sustainably manage sharks in the Pacific Ocean. By conducting research, assessing stocks, working with U.S. fishermen, and implementing restrictions on shark harvests, we have made significant progress toward ending overfishing and rebuilding overfished stocks for long-term sustainability.

Explore the sharktastic features below to glean something new about these amazing creatures. And while you’re at it, get a closer look at how we study sharks and manage their populations.

Read the full release here

Sharks Are Creeping Into the Northeast Because of Climate Change

July 30, 2018 — Warmer waters are pushing the animals further north into previously shark-free waters. Should we be worried?

Shark Week, Discovery Channel’s annual homage to the ocean’s most infamous predator, comes to a close this weekend.

But residents of northeastern states like New York—long considered a relatively shark-free zone—might not have to wait until July 2019 to see more, as global warming has been linked with a significant northern shift in the habitats of most marine animals, including most sharks.

“There’s an astounding mass migration of animal life towards the poles,” Malin Pinsky, an associate professor in Rutgers’ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, told The Daily Beast. In his work with spiny dogfish, a thin, small shark that lives along most of the East Coast, he’s seen their habitat shift “quite substantially.”

Pinsky isn’t the only scientist to make this observation. In April, researchers in North Carolina published a paper in Nature’s Scientific Resources that documented the northern migration of bull shark nurseries.

By analyzing data from North Carolina’s Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF), the researchers found that between 2003 and 2011, when water temperatures in the sound were hovering closer to 22 degrees Celsius, only six juvenile sharks were caught in the area. But as temperatures began to rise, a group of bull sharks migrated from their previous home in Northern Florida and established a nursery in Pamlico, causing a drastic uptick in juvenile shark presence. Between 2011 and 2016 alone, NCDMF found 53.

Read the full story at The Daily Beast

 

Senators share their fascination with sharks at hearing

July 19, 2018 — Lawmakers on Wednesday held a hearing on sharks to examine new research, conservation techniques and ways to improve understanding of the unique animals.

The hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, titled simply “SHARKS!,” featured experts in shark research who told lawmakers how their discoveries are benefiting the medical and tech fields.

“Americans have been fascinated by sharks,” said Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). “Aquariums and other educational programs have helped to demystify sharks and our initial fear has turned into fandom.”

The hearing also comes just before the start of The Discovery Channel’s 30th annual “Shark Week,” which is set to begin July 22.

Dr. Robert Hueter, the senior scientist and director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., credited the annual television event with leading to a better understanding of the complex creatures.

Americans are now “rooting the shark on,” Hueter said.

“They understand that that shark is not really threatening them, they’re not looking for people, that they’re there trying to do their thing and they’ve been there for millions of years,” Hueter said.

Read the full story at The Hill

MAINE: ‘Shark Week’ episode to feature Maine professor

June 28, 2017 — During more than 25 years studying a variety of fish, including sharks, James Sulikowski has had to solve all kinds of problems. Among the trickiest and most important: How do you gather data about pregnant sharks without first killing them?

“The catch-22 is that you need the information to better manage them, but in order to get the information [you used to have to] kill them. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Sulikowski, a professor at the University of New England in Biddeford, said. “So that’s where my sort of science came in. We treated sharks basically like pregnant females, like human beings. How are humans studied? Well, you take blood and you can look at that blood for circulating levels of hormones [to determine if the female is pregnant].”

That idea morphed into taking special waterproof, veterinary-grade ultrasound equipment onto boats and examining sharks that later would be released alive.

That kind of newly available data on shark reproduction made Sulikowski and his colleagues rock stars in the shark world and drew the interest of the Discovery Channel.

When Discovery Channel’s popular “Shark Week” franchise returns for another wall-to-wall dose of toothy adventure in July, Sulikowski and his colleagues will be prominently featured. That episode, titled “Shark Vortex,” will air at 8 p.m. on July 24.

Sulikowski was tight-lipped about what viewers will see during the episode, which marks the second straight year his work will have been featured during “Shark Week.” In 2016, “Tiger Beach” kicked off Shark Week and drew between 6 million and 7 million viewers during three airings, according to Sulikowski.

“[‘Shark Vortex’] is top secret. I signed my life away for that,” Sulikowski said. “But I can tell you it’s a great story. It’s basically sharks of New England, in a sense. It’s gonna have white sharks, it’s gonna have makos, it’s gonna have porbeagles. The ones that really separate us from other places.”

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News