Shark problem

I was just sitting here thinking about the shark problem at the pier. I was down on the 13 of october for 4 days and got sharked 3 times. Thats not counting everyone else that was getting sharked. My question/ solution would be for one day or one night shut down the pier allow shark fishing for that tome frame you only can b on pier if you are shark fishing. Charge say 20 a person for that time so pier wont be losing alot of money. If shark is caught it can be landed and killed. This wont do away with the shark problem completly but it will slow it down til next group moves in. Sharks will always be around the pier but the ones there now knows a hooked fish is a easy meal. How many would fish for them if they allowed this for a few hours to a day? Sorry bout rambling on guys n gals but was just my thought for the day let me hear your solutions or thoughts of this. Of ourse everyone has to sigh a waiver n release

This has been a problem since 2013. As long as the pier attracts bait, it will attract predators. Only the Atlantic Sharpnose has no size limit. The rest ate 54" or larger and several are protected. The State is not going to allow anything against state law. The pier says it's because of liability, but truly the don't want to show tourists how many shark live in the water at the beach. This has been an ongoing controversy for a long time.

There's not a good answer. If you allow a person to catch a shark (the limit is one on legal sharks, right?) He catches one, goes over to the cleaning table, processes it,then discards the body-parts into the water -- which attracts more sharks. Then he's done fishing and he has to leave the pier if everyone on the pier has to be fishing for sharks. At the end of the fishing day, if there are as many shark carcasses in the water as there are fishermen, there may be more sharks than before because a new crop has likely moved in to feed on the discards.

I've been in touch with the State Park People in Montgomery by e-mail and they tell me they are trying to figure out what to do. I would just like to hang one from a gaff everyone says the rest will leave. Sure would like to try this out. I have suggested letting us harvest them and calling a shelter or soup kitchen to donate the meat to but no response yet.

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Originally Posted by SamJ

Why not just use heavier gear? I've seen plenty of people beat the sharks just by fighting a fish aggressively/waterskiing it.

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That's a good observation. I don't exactly waterski my Spanish in, and you can't really do that all the time with a King Mackerel. But yeah, that's an effective strategy in some cases, to hustle your catch in before it gets sharked. I have a video of myself on one of the Florida piers cranking in a King (as best I could) with a dolphin chasing it. I got it in to the gaff.

While some might say that it takes the sporting aspect away - How sporting is it to essentially feed sharks with a hooked Spanish? I'm all for tightening up on a fish to get him in past the sharks, whenever possible.

I'm fishing 20lb.Mamoi and got the drag locked down. I don't care how strong you are or what size tackle you use. When 4-5sharks get after your fish half the time your gonna lose unless it's a small fish or you hook it right next to the pier. I did see a first for me 2 weeks ago. I was jigging a hard tail next to the pier hooked on a straw rig teasing the remoras and a shark came out from under the pier and ate the remora.

Attachment 6791 it runs them off

Last October my buddy and I were hooking Spanish and the sharks were following the gotcha plugs. They would eat the Spanish as soon as you set the hook.

Most sharks leave the area when other sharks are killed, its a defense mechanism, the only sharks that carcass's might draw in is the big tigers and hammerheads, because they prey on the smaller blacktips and other sharks, which is good for the pier, fishing wise because we have all seen how the smaller sharks disappear when the big tigers show up, on the other hand the big sharks being around are bad for tourism concerning the beach goers, it's kind of a catch-22 with no good answer

According to stuff I've read the dead shark needs to be putrefied. There is a shark repellent made and the main ingredient is derived from putrefied shark.