Sharks Archives - Page 33 of 40

Cape Cod may use high-tech balloon to spot great white sharks

March 20, 2017 — Researchers and public safety officials may soon have a new tool to track the growing great white shark populations off the coast of Cape Cod.

Shark researcher Greg Skomal, a scientist with the state’s Department of Marine Fisheries whose team recently completed a major study of the region’s shark populations, is considering launching a pilot program to use a high-tech balloon to spot sharks in the waters near Chatham, according to a report in the Cape Cod Times.

A Miami-based company, Altametry SmartBalloon, has developed a balloon with high-definition cameras, video streaming capability and specialized lens filters to peer under the ocean’s surface and alert officials to sharks that near the shoreline.

“I think it has great potential and I’m excited to be trying it,” Skomal told the Cape Cod Times.

Read the full story at Mass Live

More great white sharks appear to be visiting off Cape Cod

March 14, 2017 — Great white sharks are discovering what tourists have known for years: Cape Cod is a great place to spend the summer.

The latest data from a multiyear study of the ocean predators found that the number of sharks in waters off the vacation haven appears to be on the rise, said Greg Skomal, a senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the state’s top shark expert.

But that’s no reason to cancel vacation. The sharks are after seals, not humans, and towns are using the information from the study to keep it that way.

“How long does it stay and where does it go are the questions we’re trying to answer,” Skomal said. “But for the towns, it’s a public safety issue.”

Researchers using a plane and boats spotted 147 individual great white sharks last summer. That was up slightly from 2015, but significantly more than the 80 individual sharks spotted in 2014, the first year of the study, funded by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

Hunch about dogfish leads MDI scientists to potential heart disease breakthrough

March 10, 2017 — Researchers at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor may have discovered how a drug derived from a molecule found in dogfish sharks could someday help people recover from heart attacks and heart disease.

Dr. Viravuth Yin, the lead researcher from MDI, said a series of coincidences, combined with years of research on zebrafish and mice, led to the breakthrough.

“This is a potentially game-changing discovery we believe we have,” Yin said.

MDI secured a patent from the U.S. Patent Office in November and last week its research was published in a scholarly journal npj Regenerative Medicine.

The next step is obtaining about $2 million in funding to see if the research that has been done in zebrafish and mice can be replicated in pigs. The lab has an application pending with the National Institutes of Health for the pig research and is seeking venture capital funding, Yin said.

If all goes well, human clinical trials for the drug could begin in about five years. The drug could be on the market in 10-20 years, if research proves fruitful, Yin said.

Zebrafish share about 70 percent of the same genes as humans, and have a strong ability to regenerate.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

VIMS coastal shark study shows species recovering from overfishing

March 6, 2017 — The 1975 horror movie “Jaws,” featuring a giant, man-eating shark, turned the ocean into a scary place for swimmers.

It got even scarier for sharks.

In large part because of that blockbuster and its many sequels, sharks were hunted increasingly by recreational and commercial anglers in the ’70s and ’80s, to the point that some species nearly disappeared.

Now, a new analysis of seven coastal shark populations led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point indicates that federal protections enacted in the 1990s have brought most of those species back from the brink.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

How Many Sharks Are Left? The Number Of Sharks Is Growing, Decades After ‘Jaws’ Caused Overfishing In The Atlantic Ocean

March 2, 2017 — Sharks took a huge publicity hit when “Jaws” was released in movie theaters, but it looks like the marine animals are finally bouncing back: Six species that had dwindled in number due to Atlantic Ocean overfishing have made population gains, says a new report.

A study in Fish and Fisheries zoned in on seven types of sharks that inhabit waters along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, and analyzed their numbers between 1975 and 2014. All of the large species “showed similar decreasing patterns into the early 1990s, periods of sustained low index values thereafter and recent indications of recovery.” Although the smaller species did not have as simple a pattern, they are increasing in numbers as well, “suggestive of initial recovery from past exploitation.”

Of all the species investigated, only the blacknose shark from the Gulf of Mexico, a species that grows to about 4.5 feet, did not show a population increase.

The other small species included in the study were the Atlantic sharpnose and the bonnethead sharks. The larger species were the sandbar shark, blacktip shark, spinner shark and tiger shark, which can grow up to 18 feet.

According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, overfishing which heavily depleted shark numbers “began in earnest following the release of Jaws in 1975 and continued through the 1980s.”

Read the full story at the International Business Times

Pacific Tuna Commission To Assess Shark Survival Rates After Catch And Release

February 22, 2017 — The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, or Tuna Commission, is launching a study to assess shark survival rates post catch and release.

That follows the meeting of a group of scientists and academics from around the world in Wellington last month at New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

A spokesperson for the project, Shelley Clarke, said a sample of about 200 sharks in the Pacific will be electronically tagged and tracked.

Read the full story at Pacific Island Reports

FLORIDA: Senate Bill Targets Shark Fin Trade

Editor’s note: “Shark finning,” or the practice of removing a shark fin at sea and discarding the rest of the shark, is illegal in the United States. All domestic shark fisheries are required to land the entire shark at the dock, and are managed according to sustainable fishery management plans.

February 15, 2017 — A bill filed in the state Senate would crack down on the sale and possession of shark fins and shark tails which are considered a delicacy in parts of Asia.

The measure, filed by Sen. Travis Hutson, would make it a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida to trade or offer for sale shark fins or shark tails. Commercial and recreational fishers found in violation would face a suspension or loss of their licenses or permits.

Read the full story at CBS Miami

Harvesting Sharks Could Be Key to Saving Them

February 7, 2017 — Sharks and their relatives face an existential crisis unprecedented in their 420 million years on the planet. A global trade in products from these animals fuels the capture of tens of millions of individuals a year. Strong demand combined with poor fishery regulation and high levels of incidental catch have resulted in many populations being overfished, with some now facing extinction.

Many activists argue a total ban on shark fishing is the only solution to slow or halt the decline. But a 2016 study found the majority of shark researchers surveyed believe sustainable shark fisheries are possible and preferable to widespread bans. Many reported they knew of real-world examples of sustainable shark fisheries. But a global roundup of empirical data exploring which species are being fished sustainably was lacking.

New research, appearing in the February 6 issue of Current Biology, is filling that gap, and the findings bolster the idea that around the world, some sharks are being fished sustainably. Nicholas Dulvy, a marine conservation biologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, and shark ecologist Colin Simpfendorfer of James Cook University in Australia recently examined global stock assessments of 65 shark populations of 47 species. They found 39 of the populations, representing 33 different species, are fished sustainably—that is, they are harvested at levels that allow them to remain stable in size and not edge toward extinction. Although these 33 species account for only a small fraction of the world’s sharks, rays and their kin the chimeras (collectively referred to as sharks), which in total number more than 1,000, they are proof of concept that sustainable shark fishing is possible.

Read the full story at the Scientific American

Commercial fishing to open for large coastal sharks

January 30, 2017 — The commercial fishing season for non-sandbar large coastal sharks will open in Louisiana waters at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico will also open at that time. The commercial season will remain open in federal waters until 80 percent of the federal quota has been harvested or is projected to be harvested in the Gulf.

50 NGOs critique MSC over bycatch

January 26, 2017 — A group of 50 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has sent a letter to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) expressing their concerns about its certification of fisheries with high levels of bycatch.

The letter was authored by Kate O’Connell of the Animal Welfare Institute and Friederike Kreme-Obrock of Sharkproject Germany and signed by the heads of 50 nonprofits dedicated to environmental conservation, including dozens of groups dedicated to the protection and preservation of sharks, whales and dolphins.

“Many of our organizations have commented on fishery assessments under the MSC process, and over the years we have noted an apparent, and deeply worrying, lack of concern regarding the potential impacts on these species, as well as certain target species,” the letter said. “It is our view that many of the fisheries that have been assessed via the MSC certification process have not been subject to an adequate review of information available on bycatch of non-target species.”

The letter accuses the MSC of being subjective in interpreting evidence and in estimating the effects of a fishery’s impact on non-targeted species. It cites the absence of in-depth stock assessments for some species of bycatch as a problem under MSC Principle 2, which aims to maintain population levels of all species affected by a fishery at biological based limits.

Read the full story at Seafood Source