NEW YORK, NMFS CONTEMPLATE NEW SHARK REGULATIONS

 

Sharks have been in the Earth’s oceans for something like 400 million years, well before animals—or even trees—stood on those oceans’ shores.  Yet such a long and vital history doesn’t mean that sharks’ future is necessarily bright.  Faced with the challenges of the so-called Anthropocene Epoch, sharks can’t necessarily navigate every new challenge on their own; sometimes, fisheries managers need to give the ancient predators a hand.

Right now, two management actions, one initiated by the State of New York, one by the National Marine Fisheries Service, are winding toward the end of their public comment periods.  Both actions deserve the input and support of sportsmen interested in maintaining the integrity of marine ecosystems.

The New York action is the simplest of the two.  It is aimed at controlling a particular problem:  The targeting of “prohibited” species of shark, which are either overfished or otherwise at risk, by anglers fishing from shore, who often mishandle their catch and severely impair the sharks’ chances of survival.

While many different species of sharks regularly swim in New York’s waters, anglers fishing from shore are most likely to encounter one of three species:  Sandbar (also called “brown”) sharks, sand tiger sharks, or dusky sharks.  State and federal regulators consider all three to be at risk, and so have listed them among the “prohibited” species that may not be landed by fishermen.

The prohibition on landings makes sense.  All three species are slow to mature, and do not reproduce quickly, making them vulnerable to fishing activity. 

Sandbars and duskies are overfished, and have rebuilding plans in place.  Sandbar sharks are near the beginning of a rebuilding plan that probably won’t see the stock fully restored until 2070, which is 47 years from now.  As long as that may seem, it’s a quick recovery compared to the dusky, which has a tentative rebuilding date of 2107, although when you get out that far, dates amount to little more than a guess.   

Sand tigers have not been subject to a formal stock assessment.  However, scientists believe that the sand tiger population in the Northwest Atlantic have declined by 30 to 49% over the past 74 years (the span of three generations); because females in the region do not mature until nine or ten years old, and then only give birth to two pups every other year, any recovery to their previous levels will take a very long time.

The fact that shore-based anglers frequently mishandle the sharks that they catch, removing them from the water, sitting on top of them, bending their heads back to show off their teeth, and dragging them by their tails (which can do permanent harm due to the fish’s cartilaginous and easily damaged skeletal structure) only increases the stress on already-stressed species.

Having said that, even if New York anglers handled their shore-caught sharks with care, they shouldn’t be fishing for them in the first place.  New York regulations clearly state that

“It shall be unlawful for any recreational angler to take, or to possess on the waters of the marine and coastal district, [any prohibited shark].”

The phrase “to take, or to possess” is critical.  Some anglers argue that targeting prohibited shark species is legal, so long as any fish caught is quickly released, but such interpretation is legally incorrect, as the New York State Environmental Conservation Law’s definition of “take” reads as follows:

“’Taking’ and ‘take’ include pursuing, shooting, hunting, killing, capturing, trapping, snaring and netting fish, wildlife, game, shellfish, crustacea and protected insects, and all lesser acts such as disturbing, harrying or worrying, or placing, setting, drawing or using any net or other device commonly used to take any such animal…  [emphasis added]”

Thus, the mere act of casting a bait off a New York beach, with the hope that a prohibited sand tiger, sandbar, or dusky might find it, would be an illegal “taking” of a prohibited shark.

Anglers might argue that, because there is a chance, no matter how small, that a non-prohibited shark species, such as a blacktip or spinner or sharpnose, might pick up a bait, shark fishing from shore is not illegal.  In order to avoid such dubious defenses, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation drafted a set of proposed regulations designed to prohibit conduct likely to lead to the capture of and/or someone causing harm to prohibited sharks, regardless of the angler’s intent.

Such proposed regulations would prohibit anglers from using large hooks (setting a maximum inside hook width of 7/8” for J-hooks and 1 1/8” for circle hooks), restricting the length of wire leaders to no more than a foot, requiring all baits to be cast from shore, and not deployed by drone, kayak, paddleboard or similar device, and prohibiting chumming from shore with fish or fish parts within 600 feet of the tideline.  Such proposed regulations would also prohibit shark fishing with artificial lures, require shark fishermen to carry bolt cutters or wire snippers to facilitate quick release, and require anglers to keep sharks in water deep enough to cover their gills, and not bring them ashore.  To reinforce the latter requirement, anglers would also have to release sharks as quickly as possible, and not engage in conduct detrimental to the shark’s survival.

In other words, sitting on sharks, bending their spines at unnatural angles, and dragging them around by their tails would all be unlawful under the proposed rules.

I have been a participant in the northeastern shark fishery for over 40 years.  Although I’ve always fished from a boat, I’m very familiar with the shark species mix, and with how sharks behave and might be injured after being caught by anglers.  In my view, the proposed regulations will benefit prohibited shark species, and should be adopted.

Anyone wishing to comment on the measures can email such comments to christopher.scott@dec.ny.gov, or snail mail them to Chris Scott, DEC Division of Marine Resources, 123 Kings Park Blvd., Kings Park, NY  11754.  The comment period closes on August 14; all comments must be in the DEC’s hands on or before that date.

Unlike New York, the National Marine Fisheries Service is not yet proposing specific regulations to govern the federal shark fishery.  Instead, it has issued what is known as a “scoping document” to seek stakeholder input on a number of shark-related issues.  Such input will help guide the National Marine Fisheries Service when, once the scoping process is concluded, it sits down to draft a set of proposed regulations.

The scoping document is seeking input on a number of different issues. 

With respect to technical management questions, it is asking for comment on whether, and how, various species of coastal sharks should be fitted into an Acceptable Biological Catch Control Rule structure, which would group species together based on the quality of the data available, and whether such fish were subject to a rebuilding plan.  The comments made on this issue could easily impact the level of risk that fishery managers accept when setting annual catch limits for various shark species, and might well result in managers accepting more risk, in the case of some species, than they do today.

Different stakeholders will probably have very different opinions on such issues, but having spent over four decades in the recreational shark fishery, and having seen the decline of a number of species, and an apparent decline in others, I believe that managers should remain committed to conservative management.  

Knowing and having observed how sharks’ relatively low reproduction rates mean that any mistake in setting management measures will probably take many years to correct, I don’t believe that it would be wise to introduce additional risk into shark management.

The Scoping Document also asks whether a newly-discovered species of shark, the Carolina hammerhead (identical to the scalloped hammerhead except for the number of vertebrae), should be added to the management plan, and seeking comment on how many years of catch data should be considered when setting the Acceptable Biological Catch. 

Then there is the question of how stocks should be grouped for management purposes.  This issue can best be explained by quoting from the Scoping Document, which states,

“In general, having species that are caught on the same gear at the same time grouped together can simplify management.  However, having species groups together also means management may not have the flexibility needed to react to the needs of specific species.  Not grouping any species together can mean complex regulations, especially if there are different management measures for each of the currently 46 shark stocks being managed.”

There are different ways to address this issue.  NMFS could either maintain its current species management groups, or it could distinguish, on a coastwide or regional basis, between species with stock assessments and those which have not been assessed.  It could also group shark species into complexes that are caught in about the same place at about the same time.

Each has its pros and cons, but it would seem that the key is to assure that, regardless of the approach taken, NMFS still has the ability to determine when a specific stock is suffering from overfishing or has become overfished, and act to correct such problems, whether such correction takes the form of single-species management measures or imposes greater restrictions on an entire management group.

The Scoping Document also addresses specific recreational and commercial issues, such as whether commercial quotas should be established, and stocks assessed, on a coastwide or regional basis, whether the current method of setting commercial quotas should be adjusted, and whether some or all of the recreational size and bag limits should be changed.

In all, the Scoping Document represents a substantial commitment by NMFS to consider changes in how the commercial and recreational shark fisheries are managed.  Stakeholders engaged in either fishery would do well to provide some input that might help managers reach a good result.

Comments are due by August 18, and must be submitted online through the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal.  When using the Portal, be sure to refer Scoping Document-related comments to NOAA-NMFS-2023-0010.