Fisheries, Sharks and Migratory Species in New Jersey Waters

Fishing for sharks is regulated by the New Jersey and federal regulations. Cooperative conservation partnerships between NOAA Fisheries and New Jersey was formalized by entering into agreements under section 6 of the Endangered Species Act.

Beyond the threatened and endangered species, federal regulations prohibit targeting any prohibited species. That means that anglers must release any prohibited shark immediately, without removing it from the water and in a manner that maximizes its chances of survival.

For example, Sand Tiger Sharks are a prohibited species, therefore posing for pictures on the beach with this species or any other species on the prohibited list would be a violation of federal regulations.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Fish and Wildlife (NJ DEP) signed a Cooperative Agreement in 2004 which was amended November 7, 2012. establishes and maintains an "adequate and active" program for the conservation of endangered and threatened species.

New Jersey's agreement lists the following species:

Endangered

• Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus):
  » New York Bight Distinct Population Segment (DPS)
  » Chesapeake Bay DPS
  » Carolina DPS
  » South Atlantic DPS
• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
• Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
• Kemp's ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)
• Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
• North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
• Shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum)

Threatened

•  Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus):
  » Gulf of Maine DPS
• Green turtle (Chelonia mydas)
• Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta)

Additional information on the regulations regarding these species can be found at fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/atlantic-highly-migratory-species

Oceanic Whitetip Shark Classified As Threatened

Oceanic Whitetip Shark with Pilot Fish - Photo: By The original uploader was OldakQuill at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The federal government says the oceanic whitetip shark will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act to help the species recover. The shark lives along the East Coast of the United States, off southern California and in international waters. Conservation group Defenders of Wildlife called on the government to list the species.

The oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), also known as Brown Milbert's sand bar shark, brown shark, nigano shark, oceanic white-tipped whaler, and silvertip shark, is a large pelagic requiem shark inhabiting tropical and warm temperate seas. Its stocky body is most notable for its long, white-tipped, rounded fins. Scientists say the sharks have declined by 80 to 90 percent in the Pacific Ocean since the 1990s and they have fallen 50 percent to 85 percent in the Atlantic Ocean since the 1950s.

Conservationists blame commercial fishing and demand for their fins. Their large fins are highly valued as the chief ingredient of shark fin soup, and as with other shark species, the whitetip faces mounting fishing pressure throughout its range.

This slow-moving but aggressive fish dominates feeding frenzies, and is a danger to shipwreck or air crash survivors.

This Fossil Shark Is Safe

"Cretaceous Shark Teeth" by Wilson44691 Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

It is Discovery Channel's Shark Week once again and sharks will get a lot of good and bad attention. The Shark Research Institute in Princeton is offering a safe way to engage with sharks that will not be threatening at all. Hunt for fossilized shark teeth.

Kids and adults can join experts from the Shark Research Institute and the American Littoral Society this Saturday, July 11, and wade into the Big Brook in Middletown to sift for ancient shark teeth.

Sharks continually shed their teeth; some Carcharhiniformes shed approximately 35,000 teeth in a lifetime, as well as replace them by producing thousands of more. There are four basic types of shark teeth: dense flattened, needle-like, pointed lower with triangular upper, and non-functional. The type of tooth that a shark has depends on its diet and feeding habits.

In some geological formations, shark's teeth are a common fossil and  they are often the only part of the shark to be fossilized. The most ancient types of sharks date back to 450 million years ago, during the Late Ordovician period, and are mostly known by their fossilized teeth. However, the most commonly found fossil shark teeth are from the Cenozoic era (the last 66 million years).

The shallow water (about 18 inches deep) of the Big Brook sediments were deposited during the Late Cretaceous 100 to 66 million years ago when modern sharks began to appear on Earth.


INFO
9:30 a.m. to noon, July 11. $5 for adults, kids are free. Call 609-921-3522 to sign up.
Future shark teeth hunts at Big Brook are 5:30 p.m., July 30 and 9:30 a.m. to noon, August 15.

Endangered Sharks

Sandbar shark

A third of the world's open water sharks, including the great white and hammerhead, face extinction, according to a major conservation survey. Those species that are hunted on the high seas are particularly at risk. In that group, more than half are in danger of dying out, reports the Shark Specialist Group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

New Jersey waters have long been the home for a number of shark species. Though no species is on the NJ endangered list, their protection is still a concern as species are federally and globally endangered. The inevitable summer news story about a sighting or attack at the Jersey Shore always brings to mind images from films like Jaws and stories like that of the 1916 NJ attacks.

The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks between July 1 and July 12 in which four people were killed. Scientists are still not sure which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently being blamed.

Though there is an assortment of sharks that can be found in New Jersey waters, most would be found offshore in oceanic waters and are rarely a danger to swimmers, surfers or divers. Though they can often be put off by the noise and bubbles, they should still always be treated with caution.

Blue, basking, great white, shortfin mako, porbeagle, thresher, and other "inshore" and "dogfishes " are all found in our waters. The "dogfish" is actually a generic name for a large number of small, generally harmless and unaggressive sharks, not all of which are very closely related.

Most NJ shore visitors are familiar with skates which are closely related to sharks and rays. Skates can be found in shallow bays to deep-sea habitats and live on the bottom of the sea floor. If you have ever been fishing offshore, you probably have pulled one of these doormats up thinking you had a huge fish on the line.

Their flat body and large fins give skates the appearance of flying when swimming through the water. They eat a variety of crustaceans, mussels, clams, snails, and
worms. The best-known NJ species is the little skate, which is 1 to 2 feet (30 to 61 centimeters) long. A larger skate that lives along the New Jersey coast is the barn-door skate.

Skate are oviparous (egg layers) and after a breeding season, female skates can store sperm to fertilize and secrete eggs continually throughout a 3-4 month period. The eggs are encased in a tough, leathery protective egg case that is black, with four points and are frequently found washed up on the beach by bathers.

Collapsing shark populations are mainly caused by overfishing. Some 100 million sharks are caught in commercial and sports fishing every year. Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because most species take many years to mature and have relatively few young. Sharks are prized for their meat, and in Asia especially for their fins, a prestige food thought to convey health benefits. For decades, significant numbers of sharks, including blue and mako, have perished as "by-catch" in commercial tuna and swordfish operations.

The smooth hammerhead, great white, basking, and oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as globally vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of makos and three types of threshers.

The Sand Tiger shark is fairly common off Atlantic City and Cape May.

For example, the Spanish fleet of so-called surface longline fishing boats ostensibly targets swordfish, but 70 percent of its catch, by weight, from 2000 to 2004 were pelagic sharks. There are currently no restrictions on the number of sharks that these fisheries can harvest.

Europe is the fastest growing market for meat from the porbeagle and another species, the spiny dogfish.

What would be the impact from the loss of sharks from the world's oceans?

"Removing large predators would deprive ecosystems of players that have been around for more than 400 million years," said Francesco Ferretti, a researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

Recent studies have shown that sharp reductions of coastal shark populations along the US East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico caused major disruptions throughout the food chain, including on aquaculture.

The IUCN issues the Red List of Threatened Species, the most comprehensive and authoritative conservation inventory of the world's plants and animals species.

Shark Research Institute
Scuba Diving NJ - info on sharks
Images: nmfs.noaa.gov