Catching and releasing thousands of sharks? Quint would have been good at this.
Although the “Jaws” captain would have had to lay off the Narragansett lager and concentrate on the science.
Perhaps it’s best that he wasn’t involved in the 2021 Large Coastal Shark Bottom Longline Survey, a 47-day undertaking by scientists from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Apex Predators Program, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
According to a NOAA press release, the survey captured nearly 2,500 from 11 different shark species along a stretch of the Atlantic coast from Fort Pierce, Florida to the North Carolina/Virginia border.
“It’s a pretty intense operation,” said Shelley Dawicki, science writer and communications specialist for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Scientists chartered the Eagle Eye II, a fishing boat out of Fairhaven, for the survey and lived aboard the boat for long stretches from April 12 to May 28, according to Dawicki.
Fishermen aboard the boat help scientists catch the sharks using the longline technique, where multiple hooks can be placed on a lengthy fishing line.
The survey, which is performed every two or three years, gives scientists key information about the relative abundance of coastal shark populations. And spring is the best time for the job.
“The survey was designed to sample coastal sharks just prior to their northward migration along the coast,” said Lisa Natanson, in the release. Natanson, a scientist from the Apex Predators Program, was aboard the survey boat and added that rough weather was a challenge this year.
Some of the sharks sampled in the survey might be swimming around Cape Cod these days. “A lot of the sharks move up the coast,” said Dawicki. “Many of these species are found in Cape Cod waters.”
The roster of sampled sharks includes sandbar sharks, dusky sharks, tiger sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks. Scientists also caught a 9-foot female white shark and marked it with a tag provided by Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. The crew was also reunited with a female sandbar shark that had been tagged 15 years ago.
Most sharks swim away from their encounter with the sampling project, but some die during capture, according to the release. This unfortunate occurrence provides data for several other ongoing studies centered on shark food habits, reproduction and age and growth. Backbones were removed from 75 sharks for age and growth research, reproductive information was retrieved from 59 sharks and stomachs were examined from 18 sharks.
