Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherm
So which thresher do you keep? The small one that tastes great and isn't of breeding age yet.... or the large one that is a breeding machine?
|
Threshers are big game like Marlin. It's funny but you never hear anyone saying people should go out targeting little 80 pound Marlin because they are good to eat.
So it's the old pup vrs breeder argument.
Well since I've been fishing them for decades and used to be considered kind of a shark fishing Guru... I'll give you my two cents for what it's worth.
The deal is the thresher population can be broken down into two basic groups: the young ones under 200 pounds that school up inshore that are really easy to catch and the larger ones that are more solitary, usually further offshore, that fight much harder, and are also much harder to target.
There are exceptions: occasionally you'll hook big ones tight to the beach, sometimes you'll catch pups offshore, but in general that's the gist there are two basic population groups and they behave in different ways.
Don't take my word for it read Archers books, he says exactly the same thing.
So you have two groups:The smaller inshore T's are easily overfished, the larger ones Offshore T's are harder to find and catch so they are much harder to overfish recreationally, or commercially.
The commercials used to target the inshore pups but the DFG had to close that fishery down, because back when they targeted the inshore pups with gillnets they almost fished them out.
If you encourage people to take small inshore T sharks they will simply be fished harder, with many more of the sharks taken. If you just encourage them to take mature ones, less will be taken just because they are simply harder to target and catch. Just like with the commercials the offshore mature T's are just that much harder for the Recs to find and target, so by encouraging fisherman to take only adults you'll actually greatly reduce their catch numbers, by a ratio of maybe eight to one.
The counter argument is that breeder sharks have survived the test of time and produce pups.
The problem is that that idea ignores some basic realities. Look at the pup above... what could kill and eat that seven foot T shark? Well a full grown Mako could kill it, a White could kill it, and a Killer Whale could kill it, but that is it... well.... other then man.
That said I've never heard of a Mako killing a T shark, Whites are too slow for them, and though Killer whales are known to kill White Sharks for their livers I have never heard of a documented case where they have killed a T shark.
In other words if he had released that little T it would have probably about a 99.9% chance of surviving to adulthood, a female over 400 pounds, unless it was caught by another angler.
It's the same with Makos. 80% of the Makos taken in Southern California are under 60 inches, that includes both recs and commercials.
Some of us have been fighting for over a decade to make the DFG set up a sixty inch size limit on Makos and a 96 inch size limit on T sharks. California is the only coastal shark fishery in the US without such a size limit for pelagic sharks, but the DFG just will not give us that limit because the commercials intentionally still target the immature Makos offshore.
Put a size limit on them and the DFG will have to do something about the commercials targeting them, and since the commercials would loose a ton of cash, we're not going to get a size limit for either of our sharks any time in the near future.
The commercials used to target the inshore pup threshers under eight feet with gillnets as well, but after they were almost wiped them out, the DFG closed the inshore net fishery to protect them. They did not close the offshore fishery because once again the adults are harder to find and target and do not school like the inshore pups, so offshore the commercials can't kill enough of them to have a negative impact on their population numbers.
T's responded well to that change, and there's no reason not to believe that a recreational size limit on threshers would not have a similar positive effect on their population numbers, as it would protect the exact same population segment of T sharks that the gillnet ban protected.
Bottom line if you protect the inshore pups and you will have a thriving adult populations with a exceptional fishery for them.
As to eating quality I've eaten T's from 80 pounds to over 400 pounds and the meat is all the same. If I had a preference fro eating I'd say 200 pounds is about right as you get really nice steaks from a shark that size and it's not so much to deal with. Over 200 pounds it get's really hard to get it into the boat when your fishing solo.
Here's an Adult over fourteen and a half feet I caught back in the mid nineties....
back then T's of that size were much rarer then they are now, and I had to tie that one along side the boat...
That shark sounded 1200 feet straight down when I hooked her offshore, I followed her five miles before she came up and started jumping. Though I fought her for many hours, three or four, the meat was excellent and I fed a lot of people with that shark. None of it went to waste. Honestly it was the most exciting fish I have ever hooked, as it fought better that any Marlin or Tuna I have seem. That's why I see these fish as big game. The larger ones fight incredibly hard, I'd say as well as big Bluefin but still short of swordfish.
When I target T's now I only target adults, for sport, only from a skiff, only offshore with 80 pound gear. That way I'm not likely to hook small ones and any sub adult fish I hook I can get in and release quickly. I only keep sharks that I can not revive and I limit myself to one a year.
The last two a kept both were tail hooked and died on the line. A female I got off Newport...
.... and a male I got off Dana.....
Though it was cool to catch them both of those sharks kinda of pissed me off, because I caught them both within thirty minutes of trolling, on my first trip of the season. So in both cases that meant season was done for me, as I only take maximum of one a year.
Lots of people over the years have asked me advice about T sharks, I've even been asked to write articles for major fishing magazines about them.
My take is I do not want write those articles because I do not want to see them targeted any more then they already are, unless the DFG is willing to change it's policy and install a size limit on them.
As to advice I always say the same things. Fish heavy gear to reduce mortality, release them if you can, take a maximum of one per year no exceptions, and always have lots of room in your freezer just in case you inadvertently kill one and have to take it home.
So that's my long winded take. Bottom line encourage people to take adults and they simply will take less of them.
Just my opinion though, Jim