Leopard shark fishery

[clarionreef]

Leopard Sharks are very adaptable, very common and enjoy a niche that many fishes do not....murky bays.
Their primary threat ...if there is one, is the chronic, year-round sport fishery on them for fun and food.
5 foot females full of cubs are legal to take, kill and you may slit the belly open and throw the babies away.
However, if you try to keep them alive for an aquarium, its illegal.
With that established...the commercial catch of them for the aquarium trade is also illegal...of course.
The law makes little sense and yet, the industry never had or sought a voice in making it.
This fish is worth more alive...its young are environmentally inexpensive for the value they generate and it could be a legal, controlled and sustained fishery for a dozen permit holders.
Legally, it could have been controlled even better then prohibition and legally, fewer could have been taken if the numbers if quotas decided that.
So, this becomes a crime in absence of a lobby to make it legal.
Steve


Species: Triakis semifasciata from the Greek word tria (meaning the number three, like a triad) and Latin cis (meaning on the side), and the Latin fasciata (bundled) referring to the stripes.


Size: Length to 7 feet and nearly 70 pounds; most caught on piers are under four feet long.

Range: From Mazatlan, Mexico, to Oregon.

Habitat: Most leopards are caught in bays but a number are also caught in sandy shore areas. Large schools mixed with smoothhound sharks are common in shallow water.

Piers: Caught throughout California but it is a major pier species only in the San Francisco Bay. Best bets - Fort Baker Pier, Elephant Rock Pier, Angel Island Pier, San Mateo Bridge Pier, Port View Park Pier, and all piers along the San Francisco waterfront. Quite a few of these sharks are also taken off of Humboldt Bay piers.

Bait and Tackle: Will take almost any bait but prefers squid, an oily fish like mackerel or anchovy, or live baits such as ghost shrimp or small fish. If specifically fishing for leopard sharks, use medium tackle, a size 2 to 4/0 hook, and heavy monofilament line - together with a net to bring the fish up onto the pier. Late summer and fall finds best fishing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Food Value: An excellent, mild flavored flesh which can be fried, broiled or baked. Like all sharks, it should be bled and cleaned as soon as possible. It should also be kept cool and an overnight bath in the refrigerator (with just a couple of squirts of lemon juice) helps assure the good flavor.

Comments: This is the favorite sharks for most pier fishermen; it is attractive, reaches a good size, puts up a good fight, and is good eating.



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[Kalkbreath]

Are'nt anchovies ilegal as tank pets as well ?
Some one should wear that photo on a tee shirt and visit the trial.

 

[Anonymous]

No, chovies are fine, it's the feeding of them that is hard Bait fish my friend, they sell them live

 

[bookfish]

I think that any fish that grows to 4 feet plus as an adult SHOULD be illegal in the trade.-Jim

 

[Anonymous]

8O 4' plus anchovie WTF :lol:

I actually agree. It was so cute when it was baby....now whatta yah do with it?

 

[Kalkbreath]

I can catch it on a rod and reel gut it , freeze it , sent it cross country.
But the idea of hooking one off the same dock , sending it alive in a bag is criminal?Who writes these California laws ?
Is it the size issue?
Is it ilegal to keep small leopards with hook and line?
Can one keep a leopard shark in an aquarium if its a keeper size for an angler?

 

[bookfish]

Many things that seem trivial as single incidents are devastating as condoned activities. Should someone be put in jail for throwing a Mcdonalds bag out of their car? Probably not. Should someone at Mcdonalds be put in jail for dumping tons of waste on the highways? Probably.
If the trade in baby leopards were legal, there would be tens of thousands of them sold to people who are, for the most part, unprepared to keep the animals as they even approached adult size. I believe in the other thread it was mentioned that they're legal to catch and keep (kill) at 36"+.
I doubt many hobbyists have the tanks to keep a 3 foot shark that grows to 7 feet as an adult. I support this law and I think the aquarium trade doesn't need to support hobbyists keeping a 7 foot shark. Leave that to the public aquaria. The fact that others can't can't understand the logic behind California legislation (and this legislation, the Lacey law, is Federal anyway) doesn't make it less right.

 

[bookfish]

Many things that seem trivial as single incidents are devastating as condoned activities. Should someone be put in jail for throwing a Mcdonalds bag out of their car? Probably not. Should someone at Mcdonalds be put in jail for dumping tons of waste on the highways? Probably.
If the trade in baby leopards were legal, there would be tens of thousands of them sold to people who are, for the most part, unprepared to keep the animals as they even approached adult size. I believe in the other thread it was mentioned that they're legal to catch and keep (kill) at 36"+.
I doubt many hobbyists have the tanks to keep a 3 foot shark that grows to 7 feet as an adult. I support this law and I think the aquarium trade doesn't need to support hobbyists keeping a 7 foot shark. Leave that to the public aquaria. The fact that others can't understand the logic behind California legislation (and this legislation, the Lacey law, is Federal anyway) doesn't make it less right.

 

[Kalkbreath]

Are you suggesting that its more panfull to live out ones shark life in a crownded tank then gasping for air in a burlap sack on a fishing dock for three hours?
Would it pass the sniff test if each aquarium owner agreed to .......(once his shark out grew the tank) to drive to the nearest dock or pier and kill the shark in the same manor as its parents were killed by the sport fishermen?

 

[clarionreef]

Jim,
The laws against them were made in an absence of any input or reason from the aquarium side.
They are banned by default and for small reasons.
The lack of respect and genuine concern for them is underscored by the slaughter of eco-expensive breeding adults. [ a real tragedy]

Sometimes things are legislated for reasons that would not stand up in a high school biology class.
A Knee-jerk, feel good ban must make someone look like he cares. You know, like the equally silly ban on the California giant damsel ...cough...garibaldi that taste rotten, has almost no enemies, hurts everything around him and has few predators left thanks to the mismanagement of the predator stocks of groupers in Southern California.
I was in the thick of it for this penny wise, pound foolish "protective measure" for the only fish in Southern California that didn't need it. ..and I can assure you that it was 100 % political.

Feel-good semi environmental politicians use science selectively and push a lot of legislation for political hay only. It is insincere.

So, with the 50 year old sturgeons and the six-gill sharks being heavily fished in the S.F. Bay by hundreds of sportfishers every day and weekend....the push is on to save the abundant leopard sharks....and the press which usually refers to our bay as "shark infested"....now imagines them to be threatened.....hmmm.
Even if they were sincere....the priority and the logic is backwards in the extreme.
Steve
leopard shark fisherman for 10 years...1969-1979
If they were legal though...I'd be your primary source. I fish...and live near the harbor that crawls w/ leopards!

 

[bookfish]

I'm sure you're right about the law being made without input from the aquarium trade and I think that's as it should be since I don't consider a fish that gets to be 7 feet long to be an aquarium fish. I know that there are lots of leopards in the local waters but I think that if people were specifically targetting them for the trade, there'd be a lot more deliberate killing of adult females for their pups. I also don't think that the Garibaldi is a good aquarium candidate because few aquarists are prepared to keep their tanks in the temperate water temp range to support a big damsel at the expense of the (subjectively) prettier tropical fish and corals.

 

[bookfish]

Are you suggesting that its more panfull to live out ones shark life in a crownded tank then gasping for air in a burlap sack on a fishing dock for three hours?
Would it pass the sniff test if each aquarium owner agreed to .......(once his shark out grew the tank) to drive to the nearest dock or pier and kill the shark in the same manor as its parents were killed by the sport fishermen?

No, I'm suggesting that the number of leopard sharks killed legally by fishermen is a small percentage of those that would die if the juveniles were made legal in the aquarium trade.
BTW, I'm really enjoying this discussion, we all have different perspectives and are exploring them in an adult manner.
Bravo everyone!-Jim

 

[clarionreef]

No, I'm suggesting that the number of leopard sharks killed legally by fishermen is a small percentage of those that would die if the juveniles were made legal in the aquarium trade.

Any civilized aproach could put limits on permits and quotas on fish taken.
Allowing 1% of the surveyed amount to be taken by the aquarium trade could make it a controlled, surveyed and responsible fishery....and provide all that would be needed.
Steve
PS...
1% is a lot of leopard sharks!
If the ultimate size thing is an issue then the temperature thing must not be much of one.
This is also an issue with lots of fish and yet they could be marketed as such.
Arizona led the way in banning sharks as to prevent their release into local waters. ........... :roll:
....This alone proves my earlier point about political grandstanding being a prime motivator.

 

[bookfish]

Although I know that leopards can tolerate significantly higher temperatures than garibaldis. But you do point out a very valid second reason why they're not appropriate for the trade. I'm about as cynical as anyone when it comes to Govt. legislation and I believe in this case the right thing may have been done for the wrong reasons.

 

[Anonymous]

I've always had a tough time with people buying/selling sharks for home aquariums.

 

[FragMaster]

I also agree that anything shark or other wise that grows to 4-7 feet should be illegal to keep in the home aquarium, and only available live for public aquariums.
But .....if there numbers are so abundant than why heavily regulate fishing them out?
Seems like population controll equal to birth rates so far to me?
Think about what would happen if they were protected, or allowed in the aquarium trade. Seriously over populated waters with leopard sharks would deplete virtualy every native fish near it and the only thing left would be leopard sharks.
If they were allowed in the home aquarium trade , there would be idiots a plenty keeping them in tiny tanks and throwing them in to unatural habbitats where they may survive but are not a natural occurance.
Think of the havoc that would create seeing as they breed like rabbits.

I also think that white tipped and black tipped reef sharks should NOT
Be allowed in the aquarium trade.
Basicly I think I feel that ALL sharks save for the following should not be alllowed :
Epaulette Shark
Horn Shark
Japanese Wobbegong
Brown bannded Bamboo Shark
Coral cat shark (singapore)

All of those species stay under 4 feet at adult hood.
But all require huge tanks.

 

[naesco]

I've always had a tough time with people buying/selling sharks for home aquariums.

Absolutely.

Steve so you are promoting the capture of shark for the aquarium trade now, eh!
What's happening bud?

All sharks of any size and their eggs should be absolutely banned in the aquarium trade and the trade itself must take leadership on this issue.Wayne

 

[clarionreef]

Banning as a remedy;
The point is the knee-jerk reaction and need to ban, regulate and outlaw things based on selective judgement....sometimes judgements based on your own narrow experience that hardly holds up with anothers.
Often the need to ban something is a self therapy to show the world that you care about the lesser stuff [whilst ignoring the things of higher priority.]

If I ever advocated banning certain species of anything it would not be on anthropomorphic standards but ecological ones.

Ecological criteria are already in effect on threatened and endangered species as well they should be....but banning things based on the willy nilly judgements we always hear on the USL stuff is bad policy.
But, if we must ban something silly, lets start with ...
cardinal tetras because the shipping losses are so great....
and freshwater swordtails because the farmed Florida ones often come in bags of 100 dead..
and red tail catfish and tigrinus catfish cause they get 4' long...
and blueline angels and rock beauties because they often don't eat...
[ but wait a minute...some eat fine]
or mandarin gobies because [ oops...knee jerk anecdotal reaction to old gossip]...
or yashi gobies because they often starve before they can reach good care....
or anemones to protect wild clownfish populations that tank-raised
tank raised clowns supposed to....
or ban tank raised clowns as they create undo stress on the populations of wild anenomes...and....
and flame hawks and yellow tangs because they cause some collectors to use crowbars to kill 40 years old coral heads to collect them..
or crowbar collectors because they are knuckleheads...
and orbic batfish below 1 1/2 inches cuz they starve before they can reach good care and all pinnatus cuz they never reach market until its too late to feed em the raw shrimp they must have every day from the day of collection....
and acans because if they are too nice looking they were probably smuggled....[ but brown ones are fine ]
and elegans corals because they no longer hold up...
and oxymonocanthus....and..and ...
dendros...and gonipora lobata...
and iguanas....and...
bog plants that don't submerge well...
and piranhas in states with snow on the ground....[ ooops, already the law!]
and all sharks in Arizona...[ ops, already banned!]
and boa and pythons in Silverdale Washingtons...[ already law]
and...lineatus tangs cuz they want surge zone worms that live under loose boulders ...
and yellow angels because they are the biggest loss of all the centropyges
and Atlantic Tangs cuz they eat the algae in eutrophic lagoons...

oh my goodness...I'm dizzy already.

Its like negotiating with terrorists...once you start....

 

[dizzy]

Banning as a remedy;
The point is the knee-jerk reaction and need to ban, regulate and outlaw things based on selective judgement....sometimes judgements based on your own narrow experience that hardly holds up with anothers.
Often the need to ban something is a self therapy to show the world that you care about the lesser stuff [whilst ignoring the things of higher priority.]

Now your starting to sound like a southerner Steve. It good to see that all this time I've spent posting here has not been in vain. :wink: I don't need or want other people deciding what is moral or immoral for me. I think some of the California hippies and BC Canadians have lived such a life of excess when it comes to things like drugs, alcohol, and sexual experimentation that they can no longer trust their own judgement. They are permanently burnt and months of rehab and countless hours of therapy have served to only further confuse them. They need someone else to decide for them what is right and wrong. I'm perfectly capable of deciding for myself if I have a tank large enough to house a leopard shark or not. I don't see how a life in an aquarium is any worse than the legal fate those grinning goons on the dock have in store for them. There are plenty of things in this world that need fixing more IMO.
Mitch

 

[clarionreef]

Mitch,
Proud to say I am...
Daddy was from Hoot-owl Holler, down from Indian 'Crek'....not too far from Burnsville North Carloina.
Mom was a sharecroppers daughter from the Oklahoma dust bowl. They moved out to California in the Grapes of Wrath exodus.
I am in fact, a quintessential Southerner bordering on white-trash.
We lived in a trailer once...

Steve
PS. I used to be more of a conventional environmentalist and liberal but the regulation of the masses by mamas boys and "I know whats good for you" urban intellects has set changes in motion.
I used to belong to the Cousteau Society the WWF as well.