On Thursday 25 February, Minister Garrett tabled a bill to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to allow sustainable recreational fishing for Mako and Porbeagle Sharks to continue. Under the EPBC Act, Mako Sharks and Porbeagle Sharks are listed migratory species and the amendment will grant an exemption to recreational fishers to continue to fish for these iconic gamefish.

Recfish CEO Len Olyott said that the exemption recognised that recreational fishing for Makos and Porbeagles was a sustainable activity which posed no threat to their conservation. “Existing limits that apply to the capture of these species are extremely conservative. Most are tagged and released with subsequent recaptures providing essential scientific evidence to assist in the further conservation of these shark species.” Olyott added that Recfish Australia was committed to the conservation of all aquatic species and will be working closely with the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts and the recreational fishing community to ensure that information continues to be collected to assist in the conservation of these and many other species.

This sentiment was echoed by Grahame Williams, President of the Game Fishing Association of Australia. “Our Association has a long history of supporting scientific research on gamefish species. 87% of Makos caught by gamefishers are tagged and released. Our tournaments are also run under a strict Code of Conduct.”

Conservation groups have accused the government of caving in to a vocal minority and reneging on international commitments to conserve migratory species.

“Both Mako species and Porbeagle Sharks are still listed as migratory species under the EPBC Act. The international listing (Appendix II of the Bonn Convention) recognizes that conservation measures are necessary but does not require the parties to ban fishing. This is an unfortunate and unintentional oversight of the EPBC Act which an independent review has suggested needs amending. The government acknowledges that and this is why this exemption has been granted. Any inferences from conservation extremists that recreational fishing isn’t helping to conserve these and many other shark species are simply mischievous.”

Given only weeks to respond to the listing, peak bodies including Recfish Australia, the Gamefishing Association of Australia, the Australian National Sportfishing Association, the Tasmanian Association for Recreational Fishing, Victoria’s peak recreational body (VRFish) and the Boating and Fishing Council of Australia worked closely in a combined effort to convince the minister and senior departmental staff to explore options to allow sustainable game and sportfishing to continue.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming united response from the recreational fishing industry sends a clear message to the government that recreational fishing is a vital part of our Australian heritage and that Australia’s   4 million recreational fishers will not accept decisions that lack scientific credibility or common sense.

- ENDS –

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2. ICCAT leaves sharks at risk
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"Basking Shark Hotspots on the West Coast of Scotland: Key sites, threats and implications for conservation of the species." 

The report is at: http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/commissioned_reports/339.pdf

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It is hoped that this page can be used for connecting anglers together on one site to display their photos, discuss any issues they would like to about the programme or related topics and to keep up to date with the tagging programme.

A summary update of the site can be found below.

Hope to see you on facebook!

Cheers

The SSTP team.

Related posts:

1. Dr Lauren Smith
2. Spurdog Tagathon
3. SSACN Spurdog Tagging Programme

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.

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But what is the best rig?

Boat angler Les McBride has numerous massive commons under his belt and reveals the rig that works for him and many other dedicated skate hunters in the tutorial section.

The SSTP welcome contributions on tackle, tips, background information etc – just send your thoughts / article to the SSTP editor – sharkman@ssacn.org

Many Thanks.

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Big powerful common skate will terminally expose any weakness in tackle. Terminal tackle in particular needs to be strong, and rig design well considered. But what is the best rig?

Boat angler Les has numerous massive commons under his belt and reveals the rig that works for him and many other dedicated skate hunters…

Imagine a fish almost eight feet long with sharp, crushing teeth at one end, and row upon row of jagged line-slicing thorns studded along the back, wings and tail. You have wrestled this leviathan up from a dark depth of over 140 metres almost to within sight of the boat. She doesn’t like the intensity of light from above and suddenly headstands, beats massive wings and powers headlong inexorably for the seabed.

With the drag carefully set harness straps bite into your shoulders. Tight as a guitar string, line peels grudgingly from the reel. Battle is locked for several long minutes, then sickeningly the rod abruptly relaxes and the giant fish is gone, taking the hook, trace and weight with it.

You wind in the slack and discover the tough 50lb mono line looks like it’s been rasped with cheese grater… you’ve been fatally tailed. Your main line had been raked through by the skate’s coarse skin, and a fish lifetime is offski because you put your trust in that wholly inappropriate ebay ‘SKATE’ rig.

So how do you combat this all too common scenario? Go to a 10ft, 250lb mono trace perhaps? Well you could, but imagine having to drop a large bait such as two whole mackerel on a 12/0 hook plus 2lb of lead down through over 500 feet of water. Tangling around the main line is just about guaranteed at some point, and once the bait is down you can’t be sure no way of knowing it’s not wrapped and hanging 10ft off the bottom; even if it is only partially tangled, if a big skate takes the bait there’s a good chance of the tangle resulting in a broken line.

The other problem with long traces for common skate fishing is deep hooked fish. Three times last year anglers on my boat had a big common skate with a lost trace in its mouth, and without exception it was a long trace of eight feet or more. Each time the hook was so deep it couldn’t be seen, so the offending trace was trimmed as close to the hook as possible and the fish released.

Deep hooking typically occurs because with a 10 foot trace the fish can sit munching on the bait without any rod indication in such depths of water. Theoretically, a skate can swim  up to 20 feet while swallowing the bait before the rod shows a bite; this is plenty of time for gut hooking to occur.

Simple solution

The answer to this problem is to fish a far shorter hook-length of around 12-14 inches. This way, as soon as a fish takes the bait there is a visible indication on the rod tip, and if you strike straight away you will hook it in the jaw 9-out-of-10 times, and eliminate the potential for gut-hooking.

To counter the risk of the tail sawing through the main line a 10ft, 250lb mono rubbing length is used behind the short hook trace. A compact detachable boom rides on the rubbing length, which will slide off the trace in the event of line breakage, ensuring the fish will only have a barbless hook in its mouth not it’s throat or stomach which it should manage to expel after a period.

While you could use a short trace with a wind-on leader, below is easier method to ensure safe and effective hooking of these giants. The working principal of the following rig is that the sliding tube will prevent tangles when the bait is lowered to the seabed, but should a break-off occur, the boom and weight will be jettisoned. This tutorial intends to tip the wink to budding common skate anglers, providing the best chance of landing that huge skate, while giving that fish the best possible chance of survival beyond the encounter.

 Skate master rig

Follow the step-by-step instructions below to build the custom common skate trace.

1/ The removable boom

This is simply a short piece 10 – 30 cm of plastic central heating pipe available from places such as B&Q at only a couple of pounds for a six foot length, a cable tie and a cheap snap-lock swivel to hold the lead.

Simply attach as per pictures, just make sure you pull it very tightly to avoid slippage or use a dab of superglue to lock it in position if you like.

2/ Hooklength

You will need a 12/0 bronze O’Shaughnessy hook with barb removed or crushed, a good quality 300lb rolling swivel, 14 inches of 250lb monofilament and two correspondingly sized double crimps. I like to oversize things on my skate rigs, hence the 12/0 bronzed O’Shaughnessy hook with the barb crushed down in a vice or with pliers, and honed to a sharp point.

Use proper crimping pliers as merely squashing down crimps with a standard pair of pliers doesn’t provided a suitably secure or neat crimped finish.

A simple ‘Offshore loop’ (pictured below) is used to connect the hook.

3/ Rubbing trace

You will need a 300lb buckle swivel, a 300lb rolling swivel, a 20mm or bigger split ring, eight feet or more of 250lb nylon, and two double crimps to suit nylon. This follow the same build pattern as the hook-length, but use 8-10 feet of 250lb nylon. Crimp a swivel to each end and attach the split ring to the top eye of the buckle swivel – this acts as a stopper for the removable boom. As you can see pictured, the top swivel will pass through the boom allowing a lost fish to escape with only the trace minus the lead weight.

The finished rig (pictured below)is simple, effective and tangle free. It is good for repeated use, and some skate anglers can boast 20 or more 100lb plus fish in a season on the same hook-length and hook.

Author: Les McBride

Publish Date: Monday 20th April 2009

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The European commissioners for Environment and Fisheries will jointly present the proposal, bringing an end to weeks of wrangling between their departments over bluefin tuna. However, it’s only a proposal and the detail of the agreement is still being decided.

Stocks of Mediterranean bluefin tuna, a sushi staple, have plummeted since the 1960s. In 2007, the amount of bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean was 1,600 tones, 8% of the amount caught in 1964, according to an unpublished Commission paper.

There is firmer agreement for porbeagle sharks and spiny dogfish to be added to CITES appendix II, where trade is permitted under tightly controlled conditions.

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Meet the stars of the show; the Spurdog, the Thornback Ray and the (not so) Common Skate the products of over 400 million years of evolution whose population numbers are now under serious threat primarily from over-fishing.

The Species:

The Spurdog also known as the spiny or piked dogfish (Squalus acanthias) exhibits schooling behaviour and lives in close aggregations of similar sized individuals of the same sex. Juveniles school offshore and pregnant females close to shore.

Spurdogs have one of the lowest population growth rates of any shark. Maturity occurs between the ages of 6-14 yrs for males and 12-35 yrs for females. The gestation period is between 18-24 months, which is the longest gestation period of any vertebrate.

The biggest threat to spurdog populations is over-fishing and it is currently deemed one of the world’s most commercially important species. Spurdog meat is sold and consumed in European countries and spurdog fins enter international trade for use in shark fin soup and constitute a large percentage of shark fins exported from Europe. The targeting of pregnant females due to their larger size, damages the population structure and sex ratio, hampering population resilience and recovery.

The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) lists the spurdog as “vulnerable” globally and in the case of the N.E. Atlantic population off Europe “critically endangered”. With a loss of 95% of the population since targeted fisheries began over 100 years ago. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation shows that 89% of the world’s spurdog landings reported to the FAO between 1950 and 2001 were taken from the N.E. Atlantic.

There is an urgent need for stringent fishing restrictions, as current limits are routinely higher than scientific recommendations and have been insufficient to rebuild populations, which ultimately could result in a total collapse. Germany proposed that spurdogs should be included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), however at the last CITES conference in June 2007 the proposal fell short of the two thirds majority required for adoption.

The Thornback Ray (Raja clavata) is found all around the British coastline, from 10m-300m with juveniles aggregating in the shallower coastal waters which are used as nursery grounds for the developing rays. Females mature around 8 ½ years old and males at around 7 years old.

The Thornback is one of the most commonly found rays in European fish markets and constitutes an extremely important part of commercial fisheries. It is targeted by gillnet and longline fisheries and taken as by-catch in otter and beam trawls. Little species-specific landing data is available, although market sampling suggests the Thornback is one of the most frequently landed of all rays and skates across Europe, constituting 30% of all skates and rays landed in France from 1982-1994.

Evidence suggests declining catch rates in recent years in N.W. Europe and there is concern that current intensity of fishing pressure is unsustainable. Due to the rays large size (maximum length of males is 105cm and females 130cm) and thorns they rarely escape from trawl nets.

The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) system in EU waters for Skates and Rays between 1999 and 2005 of 6,060 tonne TAC was reduced by 47% and by a further ~50% from 2005-2008 (ICES 2008). These management strategies, although undoubtedly a step in the right direction, are unlikely to be significant for the conservation of specific populations. At the moment there is no effective management plan for the Thornback Ray.

The Common Skates (Dipturus batis) distribution around the UK occasionally includes reports of individuals from the Irish Sea, Bristol Channel and Central North Sea but it would appear that its range is now effectively limited to N.W. Scotland and the Celtic Sea where it can be found from coastal waters to 600m.

Males and females mature around 11 years old. It is the largest Skate found in EU waters, with females reaching a maximum length of 285cm. The large size of the common skate allows it to be caught by most fishing gear from birth (when they measure 21 ½ cm long), giving individuals little chance to reach maturity in heavily fished areas.

There has been a drastic decline in populations during 20^th century around UK and data is subjective for some areas for example French landings appear stable but fishing fleets have re-directed their fishing efforts from the continental shelf into deeper water.

In 1999 common skates were included on the UK Biodiversity Action plan (BAP) list. This doesn’t provide legal protection but includes provisions to work towards European Conservation legislation. Its main targets included plans to stabilise populations in refuge areas by 2004 and to facilitate the migration of animals from refuge populations to areas where they are scarce or extinct. In 2009 common skates received protection from the European council in certain ICES areas, meaning they cannot be retained by commercial fisheries and must be released. “Catch and Release” of elasmobranch species is successful as they have no swim-bladder that can over inflate or rupture meaning they are more likely to survive capture and release than teleost fish.

Problems and Solutions

With all 3 species there is a common theme, the typically slow growth rates, relatively late age of maturity and low fecundity are life history traits shared by the sharks, skates and rays which make them particularly vulnerable to over-fishing. The presence of these species within coastal waters makes them prime targets for inshore commercial fisheries and in the case of the spurdog and the thornback ray where pregnant females inhabit coastal waters and the shallower waters are used as nursery areas respectively, it is all to easy for an entire generation of the populations to be fished out.

Thankfully the UK has recently (November 2009) made a significant step forward in protecting both the coastal environment and its inhabitants by introducing the Marine and Coastal Access Act in England and Wales (a Marine Scotland bill has just been passed), this means the government will have a duty to designate Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) which will include “no take” marine reserves which are closed to commercial fishing and dredging, these zones will be implemented by 2012. The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and The Co-operative are calling for 30% of UK seas to be designated as marine reserves by 2020, this is a figure that scientific advisors say is required if fish stocks and the marine environment as a whole is to recover from the decades of over-fishing and habitat destruction.

Marine Bill’s such as this one get passed thanks to the phenomenal efforts of specific individuals and organisations who have the foresight to consider the future, gather data on certain areas and lobby governmental organisations until the cogs start turning, such an example was provided by Scottish Anglers working with the SSACN and the SSTP (Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network and the Scottish Shark Tagging Program) on the weekend of the 14^th and 15^th of November 2009. 100+ anglers including students and scientists from SAMS (the Scottish Association for Marine Science) and SNH angling club (Scottish Natural Heritage) gathered on the shores of Loch Sunart and Etive to take part in “Tagathon 2009” a fun event with a serious purpose; to capture tag and release prime targets of Common Skate, Spurdog and Thornback rays whilst recording numbers of all other shark species caught during the event. With fishing efforts from 25 boats as well as kayaks and shore fishermen a total of 65+ Spurdog, Thornback Rays and Common Skate were tagged. Spurdog tagging also involved the attachment of data storage tags recording depth and temperature deployed by myself in order to gain some more comprehensive data about the Spurdogs preferred habitat.

Why Loch’s Sunart and Etive? Anecdotal evidence suggests the presence of a resident population of Spurdog, with animals remaining in the lochs year round, the fact that young of the year Spurdog pups have been caught in the Loch’s proves that the areas are breeding grounds for this species and thus are in immediate need of government protection and as such a prime candidate for a designated MCZ to be outlined following the enactment of the Scottish Marine Bill hopefully within the next few months.

The identification of those UK species and habitats which are of immediate concern is paramount and once outlined effective management can hopefully cross country specific boundaries and effective collaborative management policies can be implemented.

Dr Lauren Smith with tagged Spurdog

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Squalene is being extracted from shark livers.

Alternatively, it could be obtained in small amounts from olive oil, wheat germ oil and rice bran oil.

Pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline, which has been a major producer of the H1N1 vaccine, has refused to indicate the quantity of squalene harvested from sharks that they have used in their vaccines, but do admit it has been a source.

H1N1 vaccines containing squalene oil from the livers of sharks has only been approved to date for distribution in Canada and Europe.

The killing of sharks for human survival poses a great risk to the deep water sharks. Species like the gulper shark (considered by the pharmaceutical companies to be the best source of squalene) is already listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species since it is nearing extinction. These killings for squalene put these sharks at a greater risk since deep water species have low reproductive rates that further compromise their survival.

Squalene may be essential for the H1N1 vaccine, and since there’s still controversy regarding how necessary it really is for the prevention of the virus – should we be compromising the survival of another species ?

More here.

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The world’s smallest ever whale shark has reportedly been discovered in waters off the eastern Philippines.

The baby whale shark measured just 15 inches and was found in shallow water off Donsol in the Philippine province of Sorsogon on Saturday.

Activists for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) who were involved in the whale’s rescue said they heard a live whale shark was being offered for sale at a nearby beach. Expecting a stranded giant, the rescuers instead found a tiny shark tied to a stake in the mud like a neglected puppy.

The WWF said the baby fish is "arguably the smallest living whale shark in recorded history" and continued  "This new discovery is the first indication that this coastline may actually be a birthing site."

Whale sharks, are the largest fish on the planet growing up to 40 feet long. They are harmless to humans but are facing a high risk of extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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