PELAGIC DISPATCH
This just in:
Sport chumming for white sharks banned by NOAA.
Santa Cruz Ca, Dec 31st, 1996.
Shark researchers, commercial abalone divers, surfers and ecologists
in Santa Cruz, rang in the new year with a victory party celebrating NOAA's
move to restrict the practice of "chumming" for white sharks as a sport
within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. A broad based coalition
of marine related organizations mobilized in early 1994 to make it illegal
for sport divers to attempt to attract white sharks with blood and animal
parts in the near shore areas.
" I think the right decision was made," said Peter Pyle, a Farallon
Islands white shark researcher. "The people who were doing the chumming
were just not very professional about the way they were doing things."
The regulation was approved by the National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration after extensive review of the practice that has been deemed
as irreconcilable to other user groups of the sanctuary and potentially
detrimental to the white sharks, which are a protected species in
California waters.
Edward Euber who over-sees the northern portion of the largest national
marine sanctuary in the country said that technically, the practice has
been illegal under regulations that prohibit fishing for white sharks, and
the dumping of foreign substances into the sanctuary. " the new Regs
remove all doubt for those who claimed the previous Regs didn't apply to
them."
Euber, who reviewed the substantial public comments on the regulations
said that 99.9% of the public comments were in support of the new
restrictions.
Sportdiver Jon Capella of Aptos Ca, was using chum, a bloody bait made
of fish and farm animal parts, to attract the large sharks at Ano Nuevo
Island to his shark cages. Local Abalone divers and nearby surfers nearly
went berserk when Capella arrived within a mile of them and began pouring
pigs blood into the water.
Shark researchers at the Island helped organize and muster an
opposition to the practice that they felt was disruptive and invasive. " We
have been studying these sharks at Ano Nuevo Island since 1992, and it is
our belief that it is dangerous and disruptive for the public to be allowed
to tease these animals with food." said Sean Van Sommeran, Executive
Director of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation. Van Sommeran, whose
researchers have tagged 13 white sharks at Ano Nuevo Island while using
other methods, contends that the practice of luring white sharks to cages
is potentially harmful to the sharks who often break off teeth and get
scuffed up on the cages and become entangled the rigging. "On one
occasion Capella's crew poured blood all over an inflatable skiff and
provoked a large shark to attack and sink it, that is not something to
encourage." Said Van Sommeran.
The U.S. Coast Gaurd boarded a dive boat that Capella had chartered to
chum for white sharks in 1995, and in 1996 he was hit amid-ship with a law
suit filed by the Surfers Environmental Alliance and a group of Division 10
commercial abalone divers. Capella capitulated last summer, putting it in
writing that he will cease and desist all activities that intentionally
attract white sharks.
The regulations take effect Jan 21 and they prohibit " any activity
that intentionally attracts or lures white sharks, whether using food,
bait, chum, dyes, acoustics or any other means, except the mere presence of
human beings." according to Euber.
Since the passing of Assembly Bill 522, (the white shark protection
bill), even scientists must under go a strict permitting process through
the California Dept of Fish and Game in order to study the sharks. The new
prohibition applies to California state waters within the Monterey Bay
National Marine Sanctuary to three nautical miles offshore.
In other news;
More White Sharks Tagged, ID'd At Ano~Nuevo Island
Researchers with the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation have ID'd three
additional white sharks over the past three weeks, bringing the research
foundation's total number of ID'd white sharks to seventeen. One of the
newly Id'd sharks was tagged w/ a California Dept of Fish and Game tag,
# 11605. Like the fourteen other sharks so far ID'd at Ano~Nuevo Island,
researchers have named the animals for easy reference. One of the new
sharks has been named "Long-shanks" after the medieval English king. Long
shanks was tremendous, almost twenty feet long, it was named Long-shanks
because it was dragging about ten feet of long-lining gear used by
commercial fisherman to catch sable fish in the deep outer-bay regions.
Another shark was named "Negato" after the Imperial battleship of the same
name. The third shark has been named "Ketswayo" after the Zulu king of 19th
century fame. Ketswayo was tagged in late December.
Reaching twenty feet in length and weighing five thousand pounds, White
sharks are the worlds largest known predatory fish.
Researchers are studying the sharks population dynamics and range by
tagging the sharks and photo ID'ing individuals. In the fall and winter
months the predatory sharks congregate around Islands like the Farallons
and Ano~Nuevo that are used by Northern elephant seals as rookery areas.
White sharks are a protected species in California waters and researchers
are required to under-go a strict permitting process through the California
Dept. Of Fish and Game.
Launched in 1992, the study practices only harmless non-invasive methods.
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