Thread: Shark Problem

Originally Posted by Big Dawg

In my opinion, the powers to be, whoever that is are not going to do anything to solve the piers shark problem until some beach vacationer gets bitten or worse.

Let's face it, those sharks are not just hanging out around the pier all day and night. They are crusing up and down the beach as well and sooner or later someone is going to get hurt.
When it happens the powers to be will look at each other and say, damn we should have seen that coming.
Then they will scramble to figure out a solution. It never ceases to amaze me how that it always seems to takes a tragedy to get governments attention.
For whatever reason they seem to prefer to do things based on hindsight rather than being proactive.

Three shark attacks in Alabama since 2002.
They either made a lot of noise and in the end did nothing, or had a knee-jerk response and blamed anglers for attracting the shark and made more bad regulations.

Oh wait a minute, we already have the responses of both the Gulf State Park & the State of Alabama's DCNR'MRD.
The Park banned any and all sharking from it's beaches/pier, and the DCNR targeted 'chumming/bloodbaiting' & fishing in any manner they deem dangerous to anyone merely on the beach, not just in the water. Beach goers, sun bathers, swimmers, or any other person, what are the sharks coming ashore now??
The DCNR's wording allows them to stop ANY fishing from the beach at their whim.

“For purposes of this regulation, ‘chumming’ shall be defined as the throwing of bait or fish parts into the water to attract fish.
“For purposes of this regulation, ‘bloodbaiting’ shall be defined as the use of blood, chemical or synthetic attractants, fish parts, chicken parts or other animal parts to attract fish or sharks.

300' and 500', all these are are arbitrary numbers with no real bearing on safety or not attracting sharks near the beaches.
What will they do next, ban any fishing within a mile of the beach so as not to attract sharks?

It still seems to me that a freezer for carcasses should be explored. They should have some value as crab bait or hog feed - if not enough to pay for the freezer they should at least help defray the cost.

I agree the pier is creating a locally concentrated area of sharks, but the overall beach population increase is due to the reduction in commercial take and bycatch. A change of 500,000 pounds annually from one operation is a much more significant factor than some chum going over the side. I do not think it is a safety issue for beach goers. More people are killed by vending machines each year than by shark attack. The risk of drowning is way higher than the risk of shark bite. Don't mean to sound callous but statistically speaking shark attacks are not an issue.

Originally Posted by Pierless

I agree the pier is creating a locally concentrated area of sharks, but the overall beach population increase is due to the reduction in commercial take and bycatch. A change of 500,000 pounds annually from one operation is a much more significant factor than some chum going over the side. I do not think it is a safety issue for beach goers. More people are killed by vending machines each year than by shark attack. The risk of drowning is way higher than the risk of shark bite. Don't mean to sound callous but statistically speaking shark attacks are not an issue.

I agree that world wide sharks are not a problem for beach goer's, but it only takes one tradigy like some kid to lose a leg or arm to one to create real panic and fear in people. It also causes politicians to lose all common sense.

I think that creating an incentive and monetize for these problem animals,is a way to allow for a door to open in the box that they have created.
By amending what is already in place;the removal of problem animals, by adding two more predators to the list,(this will making our waters safe for our visitors),and having a fee structure to allow permitted people to remove these animals from public access areas;in compliance with all creel limits and with no other changes to current rules and regulations.The permits would be sold at the pier to allow the harvest of the problem as by-catch; this is not to targeted these species,but to allow the taking of the by-catch;with special rules on how to handle the by-catch once it is on the decking.Permits would be good for only one 24 hour period starting at time of purchase ,and would be non-refundable or transferable.This would also provide quantitative and qualitative data on these animals as they are removed from the environment,with a direct cause and effect measurement of the animals ability to maintain its nuisance level..

That's good, Mr. Pescador. Your words, always softly spoken, carry much weight, sir. You're a gentleman and a scholar in my book -- always a privilege to fish by you.

I've only been fishing for a year and have only gone to gulf state pier twice because I did latch onto a shark and the guard cut my line before I even knew he was behind me, lost a good 100-150 yards of power pro line and my leader and sinker and hook I was extremely angry packed up left and haven't gone back because when I asked why I couldn't pull him up I got told 2 reasons, 1 it's a threat to other fishermen on the pier, well there's a red line non fisherman are suppose to stay behind right? Well I'm pretty sure the other fisherman are smart enough to know to back up if they don't know how to handle a shark and let the catcher handle it, I can understand if the person who caught the shark was unaware of how to handle it getting injured but a fisherman should know better and cut his line if he can't handle his fish. The other reason was that catching shark attract more shark to the area...... how so? If I'm catching them and pulling them up where they are no longer in the Gulf I mean what are other sharks like ooh their going on a grill I wanna go too, I don't think so. I prefer going to Fairhope Pier myself I've landed some pretty big fish and 7 sharks over there, just about 7 hours ago I had fought a fish for 25 minutes and brought him to the pier had my pier net 6 inches from him and he snapped my 65 lbs power pro! I didn't see what it was someone said it was a huge seabass but I highly doubt you can catch those there right?

SL24: Probably either big bull red or black drum. Not uncommon to hook 25-40# black drum in the bay. State record is 61#!

Oh yeah I landed an east 35 lbs black drum Tuesday night20150421_225718.jpg

Back to the food chain:

We just need some of these trained ospreys ;-) LOL