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Originally Posted by OneDropWS
Pretty new to fishing. What's the etiquette on keeping/releasing sharks? I know people are more likely to release given how much longer it takes for a shark to reach maturity. Cool video!
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As long as you're not fishing in a restricted area, you can keep a thresher. Whether or not you should is a matter of opinion. My friend didn't keep this one for a few reasons:
1) We weren't set up to process something that large (no large kill bag in the truck, etc. Why harvest if a lot of the meat would go bad?).
2) We determined the shark was a younger female. It a takes a long time to reach maturity and they have low pupping rates (2-4 pups per pregnancy per year). We'd rather let a female go to make more threshers to catch!
3) The shark was foul-hooked in the pectoral fin. Even if we WANTED to keep it, it didn't feel right to put one on the gaff that didn't get a real fighting chance.
4) We both have a lot of respect for sharks and it was cool enough just to get that close and see her swim off after an awesome fight!
All that said, I would never judge anyone negatively if they decided to keep one. Apparently the meat is good and you can use the skin as leather to make things. It's a legal fish on hook & line. Personally I'd rather save room in the freezer for some jumbo bluefin and a few YT!