NEW JERSEY CHARTERBOAT ASSOCIATION DOES THE RIGHT THING FOR SHORTFIN MAKOS

Mako sharks, and in particular the shortfin makos that we target in the East Coast shark fishery, are in serious trouble. 

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas has, to date, been unwilling to follow the scientific advice to prohibit mako landings.  The United States has abandoned its traditional role as a shark conservation advocate, voting against needed measures at both last month’s ICCAT meeting and at last summer’s last meeting of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

That being the case, it was heartening to see a New Jersey charter boat association step forward and take a leadership position on mako conservation.

Earlier this week, the Asbury Park Press reported that the Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association will no longer award prizes for makos weighed in at its venerable Mako Mania Tournament.  As a result of that change, the event will be transformed into a newly imagined “Tuna Mania” tournament.

The Association acknowledged the National Marine Fisheries Service’s finding that shortfin makos are both overfished and subject to overfishing, a finding that only confirmed Association members’ observations that that size and numbers of the makos they encountered were on a notable downswing.  

In announcing its decision to end the mako shark competition, the Association said that, in order for the

“mako shark be given a chance to make a comeback we have voluntarily placed a moratorium on Make Mania.”

Offshore fishermen, as well as anyone concerned with marine conservation, should praise the Association for that action, not just for its immediate conservation benefits, but also for its symbolic value.  Ending the mako contest will probably have negative economic implications for Association members in the short term, but they went ahead and did it anyway, placing the long-term health of the mako resource ahead of their own immediate interests.

They ought to be honored for that.

Because when it comes to fisheries conservation, someone has to be the first to act.  Someone must be the first person, or the first club, the first state or, as in this case, the first charter boat association to step away from the crowd and take needed action for no better reason than because it’s the right thing to do.  

In doing so, those pioneers set a new standard for conduct, raising the bar for everyone.  By ending their mako tournament, the Association has issued a de facto challenge to other tournament sponsors to follow its example.

Being the first to adopt conservation measures, and issuing that sort of challenge, takes more than a small bit of courage, because everyone else is heavily invested in the status quo. 

The pioneers are often met with as much scorn, and sometimes even ridicule, as they are with the admiration and praise that they deserve.  Other recreational fishermen will dismiss their efforts, saying things like “Yeah, let your fish go so that the commercial guys can go catch them,” in part because they believe that is true and in part because anyone who decides to walk a higher road is going to cause a lot of discomfort among those who have made the low road their home, who almost always seek to drag down anyone who decides to walk a different path.

Thus, the decision to end the Mako Mania Tournament will not go unnoticed, and will not go uncriticized.  

Many will probably dismiss the effort, and say that it makes no difference, because fishermen will fish other tournaments, and just weigh their kills elsewhere.

Other tournament sponsors might just chuckle a bit and declare, “More for us!” while they try to hide their unease, knowing that the Association’s actions will put more of a negative spotlight on those events that still encourage anglers to kill fish for cash.

Because the tide is slowly changing.

Shark tournaments, as popular as they had become, are a relatively new phenomenon.  Mako Mania only dates back to the mid-1980s; other events, such as Long Island (NY)’s Bay Shore Mako Tournament, are older, but can still only trace their history back to the early 1960s.  While that’s nearly 60 years ago, it’s still a lot more recent than, say, the start of the West Palm Beach (FL) Fishing Club’s Silver Sailfish Derby, which was first held in 1935, or the United States Atlantic Tuna Tournament, which began at about the same time, and only stopped doing business a few years ago, when there were no longer enough bluefin around to entice anglers into fishing the event.

But back in the ‘30s, bluefin and billfish were common, and sharks, with the exception of the beautiful and acrobatic mako, were detested as “trash fish” that too often stole or mutilated a prized billfish catch.  No self-respecting sportsman would intentionally try to catch a shark, and no tournament committee would soil its reputation by offering prizes for sharks brought back to the dock.

Shark fishing only began to gain legitimacy toward the end of the 1950s, when the late Montauk, NY charter captain, Frank Mundus, began taking customers “monster fishing” in the waters off eastern Long Island.  Sharks were abundant and easy to find back then, and it didn’t take a lot of expensive tackle or sophisticated techniques to bring a few to the boat. 

So, while well-heeled sportsmen still chased swordfish, marlin and tuna, anglers of more modest means discovered that shark fishing allowed them to catch big fish on a relatively small budget.  At that point, helped along by frequent write-ups in the popular angling press, shark fishing became more and more popular.

At the same time, all sharks but the mako and sometimes the thresher retained their lowly status.  People caught plenty of sharks, killed them, and brought them back to the docks to weigh in and photo.  After that, the fish ended up trucked to a landfill or dumped out at sea.  

I can still remember hearing a locally renowned shark fishermen giving a lecture here on Long Island in the late 1980s, when he told the audience how to find and catch the big tiger sharks that were still fairly common in local waters.  After weighing them in, he told the crowd, always slit their bellies and cut out the liver before dumping them out in the bay, because the liver floats and if you don’t cut it out, the dumped carcass might rise to the surface.

No one thought much about not killing, weighing and dumping such sharks when they were caught.

So the tournaments saw many scores of sharks brought back to the docks, weighed and, more times than not, tossed in dumpsters, to end their earthly existence feeding flies on some municipal trash heap.  That went on for quite a while, fueled in the 1970s by a new shark hunting hysteria spawned by the movie Jaws.  

In the 1980s, tuna and billfish stocks began to decline, so the sports with the big boats, fueled by the “greed is good” ethic of the era, spilled into the shark fishing scene, and contests that once offered a trophy and maybe some fishing gear to the winners started offering cash, and often a lot of it, to winners in order to reel in the high rollers.  That didn’t do the sharks too much good.

But as the hysteria began to ebb, awareness started to take its place.  Anglers became more aware of the fact that the shark supply wasn’t endless, and also became less tolerant of tournament dumpsters.  In response, the tournaments started setting minimum weights for the sharks brought in for prizes, and often limited prizes to species recognized as edible, which generally meant makos and threshers.  Awards were handed out for sharks tagged and released, and not just for sharks killed.

Yet many shark populations, and in particular mako populations, continued to decline.  Fishing regulations became more restrictive but, in many cases, not restrictive enough.

When viewed in that historical context, the Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association’s decision to end its mako tournament is just the next logical step in the recreational fishery’s conservation of important marine species.  The Association is acting responsibly, to protect an important and valued marine resource.

For doing so, they should be honored, and emulated, by the entire shark fishing community.