N.S. shark derbies cancelled after Fisheries officials say events don’t advance research | 24CA News
All three shark-fishing tournaments remaining in Nova Scotia have been cancelled this summer time, a probably everlasting finish to annual occasions courting again 30 years.
This yr, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) stopped issuing the science licences used to authorize the derbies and organizers can not swallow DFO circumstances that might have allowed them to proceed.
“The bottom line is we’re not going to be able to hold the tournaments any longer,” mentioned Bob Gavel, organizer of the Yarmouth Shark Scramble, largest of the derbies. It ran for 24 years in southwestern Nova Scotia earlier than this summer time’s cancellation.
“I’m very disappointed to say the least. It has a great impact on the local economy. It brought tons of tourists to the waterfront — in the thousands.”
This week the Petit de Grat Shark Derby in Cape Breton was known as off as properly.
The Lockeport Sea Derby in Shelburne County will proceed, however just for mackerel and groundfish.
All the derbies are normally held in August.
No scientific justification
For virtually a decade, the tournaments have been approved based mostly on the scientific data they will present. But Fisheries officers have determined there is no such thing as a longer any justification for touchdown sharks for analysis.
Since 2018 just one species — blue sharks — could be saved. Derby fishing for porbeagle, thresher and shortfin mako sharks have been banned.
DFO mentioned the pattern dimension can also be unrepresentative as a result of it consists of solely just a few dozen giant, largely male, blue sharks.
“The issue we are facing today is that the scientific data gained by landing sharks from tournaments in recent history is not contributing or advancing departmental DFO shark research,” DFO sources supervisor Carl MacDonald informed organizers in response to data of an October 2022 assembly on the way forward for the shark tournaments.
Other choices impractical or harmful
DFO informed event organizers a leisure fishing licence was an choice. But organizers say bringing sharks on board to weigh, and even alongside to measure, makes catch and launch too harmful for individuals dealing with the fish
The different requirement — that landed blue sharks have to be used for human meals — was impractical, mentioned Lockeport Sea Derby president George Benham.
“If we had say 10 or 15 sharks landed, we don’t have a market for 100 per cent of that. It would be too hard to get rid of that many. We just couldn’t do it. I don’t think any of the derbies could do that,” Benham informed 24CA News.
Tournament take too small to make a distinction
Ending the tournaments will doubtless have little impact on the blue shark inhabitants.
In 2022, 60 sharks weighing 5,800 kilograms had been landed between the three tournaments.
That represents a tiny fraction of blue sharks caught by chance by industrial fleets fishing for different species like swordfish and tuna.
A 2017 Marine Stewardship Council evaluation of Atlantic Canada’s longline swordfish fleet estimated between 2011 and 2015 a mean of 1.5-million kilograms per yr of blue sharks had been retained or discarded as bycatch.
“From a conservation point of view, the number of sharks that tournaments are taking are not a threat to the population.” mentioned Shannon Arnold of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.
“We’ve never been opposed to the shark tournaments, especially since they were no longer allowed to land any threatened species.”
Arnold mentioned some catch-and-release shark tournaments within the United States use cellphones to doc catches at sea and broadcast it again dwell to shore.
“There’s a beer garden, whatever. And they have a big screen set up and people are out there like in real time with their cellphones, they can measure it and it’s on video and people are watching it. It’s pretty cool.”
Number of sharks taken is down
The variety of tournaments and sharks landed in Nova Scotia has steadily fallen over the previous decade.
Since 2006, tournaments have been held in eight completely different ports. That was whittled down to 3 in recent times. The Riverport derby was final held in 2016 and Louisbourg in 2018.
According to a DFO report, since 2006 a complete of two,964 sharks of all species had been taken.
Between 2011 and 2016 tournaments had been touchdown about 300 sharks per yr with a mean of about 23 boats taking part.
“We’ve reduced the number of sharks. Last year, even though we had over 100 participants, only 40 odd sharks were landed,” mentioned Yarmouth’s Gavel.
“We’ve done everything DFO asked.”
