fighting being reeled into the boat or shore. Although, the best practice, he says, would be for fishermen to stop targeting fragile species altogether. “I love recreational anglers, they are great people and most of them really care about the resource,” he says, “but they have to listen to the data.” He also stresses the responsibility of scientists to effectively communicate this data and actively engaging with anglers, the importance of which “cannot be overstated.”
Hammerheads are already protected in certain states, such as Florida, but Gallagher says given their fragility they should also be given greater federal protections, though petitions to do so were rejected for two of the three species. A recent study by Gallagher’s colleague from the University of Miami, Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, could help bolster this argument. It showed that only 17 percent of hammerheads’ core range on the Atlantic seaboard—the places where they spend most of their time—are protected, but covering hammerheads under federal law would cover this range entirely. “One of the big arguments is that sharks are highly mobile and will end up in international waters where there’s no protection in place, so why should we lose the economic opportunity if it will be exploited elsewhere?” Dr. Hammerschlag states, “But if you protect them in key areas where they are doing important things like feeding and reproducing, you don’t necessarily have to protect them everywhere they go,” adding that in the past, such policies have brought other migratory species, such as birds, back from the brink of extinction.
cover this range entirely. “One of the big arguments is that sharks are highly mobile and will end up in international waters where there’s no protection in place, so why should we lose the economic opportunity if it will be exploited elsewhere?” Dr. Hammerschlag states, “But if you protect them in key areas where they are doing important things like feeding and reproducing, you don’t necessarily have to protect them everywhere they go,” adding that in the past, such policies have brought other migratory species, such as birds, back from the brink of extinction.
While this is promising, Dr. Hammerschlag recognizes the challenges of shark fisheries management. “It’s hard enough to get the data, and then there’s a lot of socio-political factors…the human dimension is not easy.”
Fishermen make up a large part of this human dimension, and an increasing number of scientists are seeing collaboration as the key to a more sustainable fishery. In that regard, U.S. Fisheries have come a long way, says Dr. Robert Hueter, who directs the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory. He points to the rebound in U.S. white shark populations after as one of the recent successes in fisheries management. Still, he would like to see the system become, “more proactive and visionary, to get us to the changes that would give us healthy fisheries 10 years from now.” A big proponent of working with recreational and commercial fishermen to achieve this goal, he says one of the most effective ways of doing so is bringing scientists and fishermen together on the water.
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