A Sharks Tale... Third and Final Episode

The close-up image of a Blue shark (Prionace glauca) eye

Part three

The first night on board, we set a short line which ended up catching a lot of sharks. The deck was a blood bath and there were bodies and fins everywhere. Emotionally it was extremely hard to watch animals, that I love and have a passion for, get slaughtered for some soup dish in Asia because people have a need to express their wealth to other people. I had a hard time concentrating on my work but after two or three days I had to switch off and just get on with what I had to do for my MSc and remember that I have to observe not interfere. They kept everything, whether it was big (3m) or small (<80cm). But after a week of getting to know the skipper and crew and trying to understand their viewpoint, they started asking questions and I started talking about the sharks more. I told them how slow sharks grow and that they only have a few pups, depending on the species. In addition, mako sharks only reach sexual maturity at around age 8 and 18 for males and females respectively (that’s a flipping long time considering it takes tuna a couple years). After chatting to the skipper he agreed that it would be ok to let go any mako sharks that were under a 1m in length. This was a massive step in the right direction and the crew really warmed up to the idea. Whenever a small shark came on board the crew would ask me if it was too small and if it was they would help me get the hook out and release it safely.

Myself and a crew member about to release this 'lightie' mako :)

But just to give you an idea of the fishing pressure these sharks are facing out there, there were sharks (often!) that we would catch that already had 2 or even 3 old hooks in their jaws. I mean the chance of the same shark being caught more than once or twice in the open ocean is miniscule yet it is happening regularly which shows that there are a lot of hooks in the water!

A blue shark which already had 2 hooks in its jaw when we caught it...

We were out at sea for a total of 20 days and in that time I saw thresher sharks, bronze whalers, mako’s, blue’s, pelagic stingrays, dogfish and a moonfish, and I am glad I did because in the back of my mind is a dark thought that if we do not try harder to save all these animals, they will disappear forever.

My hand on the underside of a 3m long mako shark...

At this point our oceanic sharks are still out there and still playing their very important role in their ecosystem, even if it is at lower numbers. The time however, is running out and if we continue now as we are then there is going to be a disastrous effect on the ocean as we know it. The management of sharks in Southern Africa is much better now than it was 10 years ago but we still have much to improve on and even more to learn.

There is hope in every sunrise...

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments: alanfoulis@gmail.com