This year the 35th year of Shark Week on Discovery Channel is slated to begin on July 23. And the timing couldn’t be any better. While no shark attacks have been reported from local beaches this year, reports of the usual summer species of sharks are already filtering their way into The Fisherman Magazine’s report section for those casting out a fresh chunk bait along the island’s South Shore.
Sharks have always been here and we’ve always swam among them. I’m not necessarily talking about great white sharks but more of the common sand tigers and brown sharks that roam the shore close to the beach. These sharks are very docile and won’t attack unless provoked. Most reported cases of individuals getting “attacked” or bitten by one of these typically docile creatures is a result of them stepping on them and the shark reacting out of fear.
More of a spotlight was shed on the presence of these sharks on Long Island due to some surf fishermen targeting them in recent years. And more recently with the introduction of social media, the masses could see these sharks that were being caught off the local beaches. I’ve spoken to many casters who have been doing it a long time and they’ve been catching these sharks since way before the age of social media. They just did it for fun and never spoke of it.
On the flipside, the changing environmental patterns seem to have brought some new species of sharks into our waters as well. I personally observed an all-out spinner and blacktip shark feeding frenzy on a school of bunker on the central South Shore of the island last year. The frenzy came within casting distance for me to lay off one cast with a pencil popper but I had no takers. For the rest of the afternoon I watched these sharks leaping clear out of the water on the outer bar, way out of casting distance. That next evening I mentioned the experience to a friend and he headed down the next morning. He came across a blitz not too far from the locations of my sighting and casted a pencil popper into the frenzy. A blacktip took his offering and gave him quite the fight on a 10-foot rod with 20-pound braid. Later that afternoon I got the pictures of the estimated 70- to 100-pound fish. Ten years ago, something like that was unheard of in our waters but the past few seasons this has been a reoccurring trend which is a sign of a pattern change.
Some regulation changes have also come about as a result of all this promotion of beach shark fishing over the past few seasons. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has proposed the following rules in the wake of this ongoing activity to help cut down on release mortality, especially since some of these species are protected or endangered…
- baited J-hooks exceeding a width of 7/8 inches and baited circle hooks exceeding 1 1/8 inches in width when measured at the widest inside dimension
- the use of metal fishing leaders attached to baited hooks that exceed 12 inches in length
- chumming within 600 feet of the shoreline except with mollusks and crustaceans
- deploying baited hooks by means other than casting with rod and reel
- the use of artificial lures when taking sharks.
Also, new handling and release methods for anglers to improve shark and angler safety have been released by the DEC in the event that they do hook into one. Remember, the proposed regulation is available for public comment until August 7, 2023. Written comments can be submitted by email to [email protected] with the subject line: “Proposed Part 40 – Sharks” or by mail to the NYSDEC – Division of Marine Resources, 123 Kings Park Blvd., Kings Park, NY 11754, ATTN: Christopher Scott.
