UNIT 6 



ATLANTIC SHARK FISHERIES 



39 



INTRODUCTION 



About 350 species of sharks are known 

 worldwide, and 72 frequent U.S. waters 

 along the Atlantic coast. Gulf of Mexico, 

 Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

 Sharks have been fished in limited coastal 

 areas for many years, but the large coastal 

 sharks have been intensively fished only a 

 few years. Sharks were first fished primar- 

 ily for their livers (liver oil for vitamin A) 

 and hides (for leather). Other minor pro- 

 ducts were fresh and salted meat, dried fins 

 (for Oriental sharkfin soup), and fish meal. 



The appearance of low cost, synthetic vita- 

 min A ended some of the small shark 

 fisheries in 1950. Very little shark was 

 eaten in the United States before 1970. 

 Since then, shark has become popular due 

 to better handling, marketing and promo- 

 tion, and an economy favoring low-cost 

 shark over more expensive fish. Very re- 

 cently, however, high levels of mercury 

 have been found in some sharks which has 

 destabilized the shark market (Fig. 6-1). 



Figure 6-1— U.S. commercial 

 and recreational landings and 

 abundance indices of large and 

 small coastal Atlantic sharks, 

 1979-90. 



SPECIES AND STATUS 



Under the Magnuson Fisheries Conserva- 

 tion and Management Act (MFCMA), U.S. 

 Atlantic sharks have been divided into 

 three management groups (Table 6-1 ): 1 ) 

 Large coastal sharks (white, tiger, lemon, 

 smooth and great hammerhead, basking, 

 whale, blacktip, sandbar, reef, dusky, spin- 

 ner, silky, bull, bignose, Galapagos, night, 

 ragged tooth, nurse, and scalloped), 2) 

 small coastal sharks (Atlantic and Carib- 

 bean sharpnose, finetooth, blacknose, 

 bonnethead, and Atlantic angel), and 3) 

 pelagic sharks (longfin and shortfin mako, 

 blue, porbeagle, thresher, bigeye thresher, 

 oceanic whitetip, sevengill, sixgill, and big- 

 eye sixgill). 



Both U.S. recreational and commercial 

 shark fishermen seek coastal sharks along 

 the Atlantic seaboard. Pelagic sharks are 

 targeted by tournament anglers, particu- 



larly off the Mid-Atlantic states, and are 

 incidentally caught by swordfish and tuna 

 longliners. The dockside value of the com- 

 mercial shark fisheries has averaged about 

 $7 million annually in recent years. 



Anglers fish for sharks on both tourna- 

 ment and nontournament trips, the latter 

 being the more prevalent. Nontournament 

 anglers usually catch small coastal sharks 

 that are generally not targeted by commer- 

 cial fisheries. However, commercial and 

 recreational fishermen can affect the shark 

 fishing of each other. The Gulf shrimp fish- 

 ery catches and discards many small 

 coastal sharks (mostly sharpnose). Also, 

 headboat anglers depend on blacktip 

 sharks, a species seasonally taken by 

 longline and drift gillnet fishermen. Many 

 southern shark tournament anglers also 

 fish for the same large coastal species 



