26

outdoors

with Lou Rody

sports

Herald & Lantern 1* January '94

Shark Fishing Now Firmly Entrenched

. . Jaw^ became a famous book and a famous movie. A sequel. Jaws 11, was not as great a hit ?t the box of: ■ fice. but by the time ft came alorfg. shark fishing had become firmly dntren

ched in sportfishihg annals Sharks had always been around to intrigue man There are around 250 kinds of sharks which have been , identified in the waters, of the world, including a cou-

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pie of fresh water species Sharks' go back 250 million years and they have remained relati'velyQnchanged in all- of that time if the fossils we find are anywhere ' near, indicative of the . past siie, shape and appearance of these sah water •swim 1 . mers Man has a fear of sharks and ih turn it turns tp morbid interest. Anytime you doubt that sharks draw crowds, hang , a couple on a pole at any mprina where they are visible from the road - SHARKS are now recognized as game fish by the prestigeous Interna-tional-Game Fish Association. Seven varieties are eagerly sought after by big •game'fishermen all over the world. The largest fish ever recorded on road and 1 reel isathe 2,664-lb white shark caught April 21,1959 at Ceduha, South Australia, by Alfred Dean The second largest fish ever recorded on rod and reel is the 2.344-lb. white shark boated by Dean imSneaky Bay in South Australia Sharks are big; "mean and

plentiful. .

Jaws helped accentuate the interest and there has bepn a proliferation . of shark tournaments all along the coast. Cape May County get^ jts share of ocean and Delaware Bay sharks. Few are ever encountered on our bathing beaches. Some are sighted along the coast at times, but there is’ little' if any danger to bathers. , Why the fascination aboyt sharks? First of all. they are plentiful and provide lots of fishing action at costs well below that of a daylong trip on a sportfishing boat seeking the exotic marlins, tunas and dolphins. The season is long for sharks, starting in late May and continuing well into October. As we said before, sharks are big* and they are dangerous, providing loads oif fishing challenge to test men and mettle as well as equipment Catching big sharks has become an.art * as more and more is learn ed about their habitat, habits and range

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THEY CAN BE caught in Delaware Bay and the .Atlantic Ocean and-there is a certain fascination to be on one end of a big game rod and reef rigged for sharks. The bait disappears back into the chum slick and below the surface of the tvater . where SOMETHING lurks WTien the reel starts to sing, the line gets tight and the rod bends, vou know the SOMETHING- is big 'but you still-do not know what it is. It may be anyone of the seven sharks recognized by IGFA.' It might be a Great White. It might be a Mako. It could be a tiger shark, a blue shark, a thresher shark, a porbeagle or a hammerhead. Or it might be any one of the hundreds of sharks not recognized by the IGFA. You may have a * real trophy' for mounting purposes or you might have the winner in the contest you are currently fishing. Or, bette* yet. you might, have some delicious food for the table. , • That's something which stuns a lot of the unihitated. Sharks are excellent for the table and they have bijen eaten for many centuries. Only recently is shark becoming a marketable item for the American palate. It has not yet taken off to compete with the hamburger. Given time, it

might.

SHARK FISHING for sport has a down side in that-it tends to encourage indiscriminate Killing. of sharks. Tournaments address - the problem by encouraging releasing any sharks which are not in the running for a weigh-in prize. They also encourage the use of the shark meat for the table and theyvencourage mounting the fish as a trophy so that there is little waste. Sharks should n o t b e killed i n - discriminately, be they little or big. Individual anglers also are more into releasing sharks than they had been a while back. Tagging and releasing sharks than they had been a while back Tagging and releasing sharks is becoming popular as part of the research and study programs. Conservation efforts are paying off and fewer a*id fewer anglers are killing shares just to bring them in and photograph them. If you plan to shark fish,' you should get interested in the tag and release program. which is an offshoot of the vtoik Of the National Marine Fiserise Service. Write '.hem m RR7, South Ferry Road. Narragansett, R.I. 0£882 for tagging information. We mentioned that sharks are dangerous. Any fish is dangerous and when they have row after row of teeth and powerful tails such sis sharks are blessed with they are even more dangerous. Add to this a skin which is rough as a rasp; if you get belted by a^shark’s tail it can not only break bones, the rough skin can take a lotnf hide off the hapless angler. AS FAR AS danger to bathers, there are only 22 recorded unprovoked shark attacks and nine fatalities recorded in the century from 1865 to 1962. Unprovoked shark attacks would, of course, rule out

airplane and skip accidents and wartime maritime disasters Why the attention to sharks this week when the few Jersey Coast party boats are catching whiting, cod and ling north bf the Jersey Cape, and the summer season is a while, away? That's because we just came thorugh the judging time for the 1983 Cape May County fishing tournament. The judges noted an inordinate number of entries in a non-existent shark divfsjen because anglers were bringing them in to be weighed. Af-ter the judges'meeting, the Public Affairs Department which operates the fishing contest decided to recognize shark catches by issuing citation for sharks entered in the seven categories listed by • IGFA. But, to avoid a rush to bring in large numbers of sharks, there will also be release citations issued- to anglers'who tag and release or release sharks they hooked and let go. This puts sharks on a levfel with the white and blue marlin, both of which have been recognized as game fish for many years, and both of which have been singled out in a tag and release program in the county contest and in many of the marlin tournaments

held along the coast. IF YOU HAVE your own boat and get started in shark fishing ,*be forewarned that'while sharks have a broad range and fcre numerous, they are not all that easy to catch and it » takes lots of angling finesse to handle them property. Novices should spend time learning how to handle sharks before and after they'are hooked You might set aside Saturday. Feb. 25, if you. are a shark fisherman. On that date, several Jersey Cape sharkers will be presenting a clinic-type program at the Recrea-tional-Vehicle and Sportsman’s Show at Halloran •» Plaza, Route 130, Pennsauken. Saturday - show hours are from 10 a.m. tq 10 p.ni. but the shark clinics will be interspersed with other fishing segments Ifom l-p.m. to 9 p.m: Set aside that date if you want a lot of shark fishing know-

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MOON PH AS EM POSITIONS The Moon * affect on the Tide i* greatett » hen cloteet to Earth (in perigeei and when in direct alignment with Sun £ earth (full £ new moon phases). On and about these dates, low pressure systems and/or strong wiods I depending upon direction; may result in flooding, andextremely low tides New Mooc ...j • FlrW Qamrter . ... n ' Full Mooc ,«

TIDE TABLE Computed for Cape May City beachfront, for other areas, see Correction Time*. “■DATE HIGH LOW

22 Sun 23 Mac 24 Tue 25 W ed 26 Thu 27 Fn 28 Sal 29 Sun 30 Moo 31 Toe

a m. p.m. 7:22-7:52 3:09-8 44 9 099:35 9:52-10:30 10:45-11.23 11:49 12:15-12:35 1:15-1:31 2:13-2:33 3rl2-3:3B 4:15-4:40 8:ir-S:37 5 596:23 6:43-7:05

CORRECTION TIMES Compute approximate times of *ii£h £ low water for your orec by adding or subtracting the following number of ' minute* for eoch tide pha»f in the Tide Table LOW HIGH Great E«g Harbor Inlet Minus 12 * plusio. Ocean City < Mi Si Bridge > plus 35 pits 22 Corson Inlet xbridgej Phi* 21 plus? Sea Isle Cdy «Ludlatn Thoro Bridge i p!us6£ plus 43 Sea Isle City Beach minus 2 mums 21 Townsend Inlet .plus 21 , plus 4 Seven Mile Beach phalS - jr Stone Harbor I Great Channel Bridge i Phi* 43 plus 40 Hereford Inlet < Anglesea I plus 19 o Wildwood Beach Minus 2 minus 17 West Wildw ood i Grips} Channel bridge i plus 46 plus 43 Cape May Harbor Plus 1 minus 4 Five Fathom Bank pluill plus 1 Cape May Point plus46 plus 34 McCne Shoal Plus 28 plus 22 Delaware Bay Bayshore Channel (Bay-Canal Junction! P*us31 plus 36

plus 75 plus 71 \ • Dennis Creek Entrance ‘plus 96 plus m ftV'S Brandywine Shoal Light plus?? plus 52

12:591:41 ' 1:43-2:31 2 35-3 :18 3:294:04 4 17-4:54 5 195:47 6 :196 43 7:297:44. 8:298:42 9:279:38 10:23-10:30 11:16-11:21 •12:06 12:1212:52

WAND’S TOWING SERVICE (DAVID J . CHRISTINE. OR H D WAND) !s Not Affiliated Or Responsible For Any Business Or Action Taken By WAND'S MOBIL, INC. TRADING AS DAVE S MOBIL) NEW OWNER. DAVID R GRAY