On Apr 2, 1:29 am, "Calif Bill" wrote:
"thunder" wrote in message

news
On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:32:31 +0000, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

I don't go shark fishing anymore because of that very issue - sharks are
overfished.

Add to that a very slow reproductive cycle, and you have a problem. I've
read the Great White reaches sexual maturity in their teens, and may only
have several litters in their lifetime.

Lots of catch and release shark fishing in San Francisco Bay. Some leopard
and 7 gill sharks are kept for the table, but most are C&R. Great Whites
are protected species. And when they were open for fishing, very few were
brought to the boat.

First off, just about every shark caught, with the exception of Mako
and Thresher, by non-commercial boats is released unharmed, and it's
been like that for probably twenty years now. The last shark
tournament I went to their were probably fifteen, or less, sharks
killed. By me, during the season, their's probably only a dozen or so
tournaments held, and it's getting more and more common for
tournaments to have no fish come in that meet the minimum weight or
length limit requirements. And every fisherman knows if you come back
to the dock with a small shark, your never going to hear the end of
it, and that's a good thing. The problem with sharks has been long
line, and drift net, commercial fishing, and the bulk of the fish are
finned, put quite simply, their fins are cut off and the shark is
thrown overboard to die, if it hasn't already done so. The fins are
used to make soup, and you can store a lot of fins on your average
commercial boat. Sportfishing has got nothing to do with this problem.
But if the commercial guy's can find someone gullable enough to buy
into their story (I didn't read the story, but the New York Times a
great place to start), they'll do it.

Don't expect the commercial fishing of sharks to stop any time soon,
the commercial guy's have got the politicians in their back pockets,
and they sit on most of the fishery management counsels that manage
most fish. So when it comes time to make changes to save the fishery,
don't expect them to cut their numbers. They will cut the
noncommercial numbers and claim their taking action.

John