Keith Lusher 11.19.24
In response to constitution guides and anglers who fish the Florida Keys, the variety of instances they arrive into contact with sharks consuming their catch is rising. The issues replicate these of many anglers throughout the Gulf Coast who’re witnessing shark depredation greater than of earlier years.
The findings end result from current analysis from the Bonefish & Tarpon Belief whose said aim is to establish methods for sharks and anglers to coexist inside a wholesome flats fishery.
Anglers and guides inform BTT that they’re rising increasingly annoyed by sharks which can be taking hooked fish or devouring fish which were launched.
BTT launched the Florida Keys Shark Depredation Project within the fall of 2024. The research started with a survey of anglers who fish the inshore areas from Biscayne Bay south to Key West and west to Florida Bay and the Everglades.
After the survey, BTT researchers carried out a workshop with these anglers with the intention to map the areas the place they noticed probably the most shark interactions.
Their findings present a gradual improve in shark depredation over the previous ten years, with a marked inflection level round 2014-2015, when charges rose sharply. Nowadays, crimson drum and snook are the flats fish species depredated most, with Lemon sharks being chargeable for probably the most altercations. These findings, along with the high-depredation areas supplied by guides, will inform the subsequent section of the undertaking: BTT researchers working within the discipline to review shark habits, food plan, and motion to get a greater deal with on what has induced the rise in shark-angler interactions.
BTT plans to work with anglers and useful resource managers to deploy science-backed options to minimize shark depredation within the Keys. BTT helps the SHARKED Act, a invoice that may create a activity power of specialists to deal with the depredation drawback nationwide.
We’re enormously grateful to the anglers and guides who’ve participated on this undertaking. Your information and willingness to speculate effort and time into enhancing the useful resource is crucial to BTT’s scientific strategy to conservation.
Keith Lusher is an award successful out of doors journalist that resides in Covington, Louisiana. He owns and operates NorthshoreFishingReport.com and writes a weekly out of doors column for the Slidell Unbiased Newspaper. He additionally writes for the St.Tammany Parish Tourism Fee’s VisitTheNorthshore.com. He’s the previous host of The Northshore Fishing Report Radio Present and is on the board of the Louisiana Outside Writers Affiliation. Keith contributes to quite a few publications each on-line and in print and prides himself on selling South Louisiana’s distinctive fishery. To contact Keith e mail: keithlusherjr@gmail.com
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