Thread: Shark repellent

I'm sitting here watching Shark Week on TV and they showed a short segment on an effective shark repellent that works made with "necromones" or pheromones made from putrefied shark flesh. It works very well, but is expensive. There are published reports on its effectiveness in the scientific literature (link at end of post).

That seems to me to be yet another argument for the State to allow people to catch sharks from the pier.

I'm wondering if some of the shark fishermen might keep some meat or guts (from a shark caught elsewhere) and have/find a place where they can let it putrefy (maybe sealed in an airtight container). If some of the putrefied shark was put in the water either from a boat upcurrent from the pier or from the pier (it would not be chumming, but you never know what the State would say), then then it might do something to reduce the sharks around the pier.

If the experiment worked, then that would be an even more powerful argument for allowing sharks to be caught and killed.

Personally, I'm not going to be down until August and we are going to be boat fishing then, but if I get a shark I will keep some and put it in an airtight box.

Chemical shark repellent: Myth or fact? The effect of a shark necromone on shark feeding behavior

I may be wrong but i believe saving parts of a shark or any fish for that matter and then bringing it to the pier to dump it could be considered chumming by fish and game, no matter the reason behind it, you want to be careful before you try and do that sort of experiment

Originally Posted by fishingjunkie84

I may be wrong but i believe saving parts of a shark or any fish for that matter and then bringing it to the pier to dump it could be considered chumming by fish and game, no matter the reason behind it, you want to be careful before you try and do that sort of experiment

Besides that, it's my understanding that sharks feed -- a whole lot -- on sharks of other species. So dumping shark remains might exacerbate the problem of too many sharks hanging around the pier. Nobody wants to be an exacerbator!

The shark has to be putrefied (stink) to work as a repellent. According to the article abstract the research was done because of anecdotes about sharks avoiding shark carcasses, not fresh dead. When they took the extract from the putrefied sharks it worked as a repellent.

I'm all fer "putrifying" a few sharks! lol

I do remember back 40 years or so when they had several HUGE carcasses (10' +) hung by the tail from Navarre Pier.
it would take a couple of weeks for the baitfish and birds to reduce them to the point it was just an empty rope hanging.
I don't ever remember seeing sharks there in the day time... just sayin

Worst case scenario: Sharks leave completely after the putrified scent is released, along with 90% of all fish specie!

Originally Posted by bodebum

Worst case scenario: Sharks leave completely after the putrified scent is released, along with 90% of all fish specie!

The abstract said there was no effect on teleosts (bony fish).

Even sharks have no regard for kinship!!!!

The only feasible and legal (sort of) approach to dealing with sharks is to hook them and wear them down. Sharks are more scavengers than predators and they concentrate around the pier for an easy meal. If a shark has to fight as hard as I make them fight for a single LY, they wind up leaving because they have to exert more energy than they take in. Sharks aren't smart, but they instinctively understand that their intake has to exceed their effort. Make it hard on them and they will leave for easier pickings.

The current policy is that you are supposed to break them off as soon as they are identified. I have seen a Ranger take a pole from a fisherman's hands and break a shark off. I will say though that that particular fisherman was one of the ones who fish at the T with long wire leaders, large hooks, and big chunks of fish - not much question what he was fishing for.