The following press release was sent out yesterday and marks a significant milestone in the development of the SSTP – 1000 fish tagged and counting, and all in less than one year.
This has only been achieved through the terrific support of the 100′s of anglers – especially all those who have qualified for a bronze, silver or gold cap.
The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network
Scottish Shark Tagging Programme
“ 1000 sharks tagged in Scottish waters by sea anglers in less than one year. ”
The Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP) which is …

Please feel free to download this Newsletter (just click on the image) which provides an overview of some of the things we have been up to over the past few months and covers in a bit more detail Sharkatag 2010 and our Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP).

Thanks to the incredible team behind Sharkatag and all those who took part in them, Sharkatag was a huge success; the increase in the numbers of novices and juniors was a special feature this year.
Once again the event showed that sea anglers can …

Now available here (pdf) – a round up of some of SSACN’s activities to date this year.
The newsletter focuses on two major projects – The Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP – www.tagsharks.com) and a Scottish Industry Science Partnership (SISP) activity, where SSACN are the industry lead, to develop a standard process for undertaking near-shore stock surveys.
There’s also news of a new tagging event around next Easter; this combined with the Tagthon and Sharkatag provides a terrific foundation for the SSTP
Sharkatag 2010 again showed the tremendous commitment sea anglers have to …

From Life History of the Piked Dogfish (Squalus acanthias L.) in Swedish Waters
Charlott Stenberg Fiskeriverkets Utredningskontor, Göteborg, Sweden
The piked, or spiny, dogfish, Squalus acanthias, is a common shark in the Atlantic, the Pacific Ocean and in the Black Sea.
Jones and Geen (1976) studied whether the piked dogfish in the Pacific Ocean should be classified as a species of its own, Squalus suckleyi, as it has been in other studies, or if it is in fact the same species in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.
After electrophoretic analyses …

From the paper Reproduction of female spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias, by Thomas S. Jones
The spiny dogfish  (Squalus acanthias) is a relatively small shark with a characteristic spine in front of each dorsal fin.  Its dorsal side is grayish and has sporadic white spots.
Although it may reach a length of 160 cm, most individuals in the North Sea are in the range of 80–100 cm (Ford,  1921).  It is distributed worldwide,  absent only from tropical and polar regions.
The spiny dogfish has been harvested for more than …

SNH Commissioned Report 339:
Basking Shark Hotspots on the West Coast of Scotland: Key sites, threats and implications for conservation of the species.

 
The Wildlife Trusts’ Basking Shark Project conducted effort-corrected line transect surveys for the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) along the west coast of Scotland between 2002-2006. A total of 11,179km of linear transects consisting of 956 hours duration were covered, and a total of 593 sharks were recorded whilst on transect.

Very little work has been carried out in the UK to show the mortality rates on fish released by rod and line anglers; consequently much of the findings below are based on fish from overseas.
A study http://www.acuteangling.com/Reference/C&RMortality.html
was carried out on a variety of different species ( non Shark ) The study suggests an average successful return rate of 97.23% without consideration of optimized techniques. The study claims the use of specific tackle types and fishing techniques, use of codes of practise etc. can significantly reduce the 2.73% mortality rate.
And on …

Listen to SSTP’s Ian Burrett talking about Tagathon on this weekends BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors programme at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nwsgy – fast forward to 1hr 10 mins to get to the start of Ian’s contribution to the programme.

SSTP are pleased to introduce the latest member of our team – Dr Lauren Smith.

The Shark Bug
From a very early age I was fascinated by the Oceans, however growing up in West Bromwich meant shark encounters were more often experienced behind reinforced glass tanks in Aquariums than in the wild! It wasn’t until I moved to Plymouth to pursue my undergraduate degree that I could finally begin to immerse myself in the shark’s realm. Specific research projects grabbed my attention and the more I discovered about sharks, the more …

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Argyll and the Islands LEADER Programme have put together a funding package which will enable us to take our Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP – www.tagsharks.com) to the next level by funding a ‘Shark Project Officer’ and helping support some of the ongoing costs.
If you are interested in applying for the Project Officer job go to http://www.snhjobs.co.uk/; if you require any further information, details etc, just use this form.
The following press release went out today.
The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network
SSACN …