Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Targeted Catch-and-Release of Prohibited Sharks: Sand Tigers in Coastal Delaware Waters

ORCID

0000-0002-3753-8950

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Fisheries

ISSN

0363-2415

Publication Date

5-2017

Keywords

Carcharias taurus, Recreational fisheries, Capture stress, Conservation, Recovery, Atlantic, Marine, Growth, Age

Abstract

The popularity of recreational shark fishing appears to be on the rise in recent years, with current policies often failing to address the direct targeting of protected species in this sector. Examination of catch trends from the past decade revealed that more than 66 million sharks were caught by recreational anglers along the U.S. eastern coast alone, including more than 1.2 million prohibited species. Using Sand Tigers Carcharias taurus captured by volunteer anglers as a case study to evaluate post-release mortality, 33 individuals were fitted with external acoustic tags and passively tracked using an array of acoustic receivers. Although rates of internal hooking and gear retention were high (57% and 60%), short-term post-release mortality was relatively low (6%) and was heavily influenced by hook location and retention. Given the dramatic increase in the range and extent of recreational fishing targeting prohibited species, even relatively low mortality rates may still pose a significant threat to recovery.

DOI

10.1080/03632415.2017.1306974

Volume

42

Issue

5

First Page

281

Last Page

287

Comments

©2017 American Fisheries Society

Additional Comments

NSF-Delaware EPSCoR grant #: EPS-1301765

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