Keith Lusher 09.23.24
Whereas leisure anglers wait patiently for the H.R. 4051 AKA the SHARKED Act to maneuver previous the Senate and grow to be legislation, incidents of shark depredation have gotten increasingly more frequent.
Residing in Southeast, LA, I’m no stranger to each offshore fishing and inshore fishing. Up to now, I’ve skilled shark depredation solely in offshore waters within the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, on my newest fishing journey to 4 Bayou in Plaquemines Parish, I witnessed one thing that I’ve by no means seen earlier than – inshore sharks.
Nick Liebel of Belle Chasse, LA, has been fishing the world for over 30 years and mentioned he’s by no means seen the sharks so thick as he’s seeing in the present day. “It’s unhealthy – all summer time it’s been like this,” he mentioned.
We have been fishing a set of previous camp pilings when our journey was interrupted by a college of sharks that honed in on our catch. The sharks have been so unhealthy that we have been compelled to maneuver as a result of we have been shedding so many trout to the predators.
Liebel mentioned he’s seen so many sharks chase down his trout, that he’s realized inform when a shark is chasing the fish. “You’ll be able to inform when there’s a shark behind the fish as a result of the trout will swim in the direction of me actually quick and generally soar out of the water to get away from the shark,” he mentioned. On a median journey, Liebel mentioned he’s shedding one out of three fish to the blacktips which have invaded the world. “Oh, we’re shedding a ton of specks to sharks out right here,” he mentioned.
Whereas the SHARKED Act is being held up within the Senate, newly put in Secretary of the Louisiana Division of Wildlife and Fisheries, Madison Sheahan, isn’t ready.
Madison Sheahan despatched a letter to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commissioners asking to increase leisure and business alternatives for sharks.
Within the letter, Sheahan suggests eliminating the leisure bag limits for bull sharks and black tip sharks and recommends rising the allowable every day business harvest from 45 to 55 sharks per journey.
“Because the species rapidly adapts and rebuilds resulting from profitable collaborative conservation efforts, we’re obligated to the sportsmen of Louisiana to train adaptive administration in an effort to mitigate consumer battle and maximize alternative,” mentioned Sheahan. “The Blacktip and Bull Shark numbers at the moment are wholesome sufficient to warrant extra harvest; doing so would additional assist our administration efforts for quite a few species wanted by each business and leisure fishermen.”
I applaud Sheahan on her efforts to scale back shark depredation. I encourage different states the place sharks are affecting leisure fishing to take motion.
In the meantime, The American Sportfishing Affiliation (ASA) stays hopeful that the SHARKED Act might be signed into legislation by January of 2025 and recommends a four-tier strategy to addressing the issue. “We’re optimistic the Senate will observe their Home counterparts and move the SHARKED Act earlier than the tip of the 118th Congress. In doing so, we suggest a four-tier strategy to higher tackle shark depredation and angler interactions: educating anglers on keep away from and reply to shark interactions, a wholistic administration strategy that features federal and state fisheries managers, considerate coverage proposals that reduce shark-human engagement, and continued analysis and understanding across the incidence of conflicts between sharks and fishing vessels.
