Is it worth killing a fish, just to try and claim a record?

[Slack lines]

A monster shark caught off Guernsey would still be alive – if only it had been smaller.

 

James Allen, who spent nearly an hour battling to reel in the 295lb porbeagle, said he would have set it free had it not been a record catch.

‘We weren’t planning on keeping it but we thought that it must be a record so we brought it in,’ said the 26-year-old. ‘We would have thrown it back otherwise, because it’s only recreational fishing so I don’t usually think you should keep them.’

The creature was enjoyed by many islanders yesterday as Checkers sold it for £2.99 per lb.

‘I didn’t know what to do with it so I gave it to my mate who put it in his van and took it to Checkers.’

The supermarket’s fishmonger, Simon Newton, confirmed it had been a big hit with customers.

‘We have nothing left,’ he said. ‘It’s been great and we’ve sold loads of it. It’s the fifth porbeagle we’ve had in two years and it always goes down well.’

The porbeagle is listed by Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as vulnerable to extinction.

The convention has three lists and the shark features in Appendix II, which sets out species that are not in current danger of extinction but could become so unless trade in them is closely monitored.

Guernsey Press angling correspondent Len Le Page said there were no commercial fishermen in Guernsey who fished for porbeagle.

‘Fewer than 10 have been killed in local waters in the last 20 years. The French have killed lots commercially but I do not know of any Guernsey fisherman who fishes for shark intentionally,’ he said.

‘If we were killing 50 or 60 porbeagle sharks a week, I would say hang on but there are so few that are killed. The angling commitment for shark has been extremely low-key for many years and that’s not going to change.’

Jon Torode, senior sea fisheries officer for Commerce and Employment, said Guernsey followed the EU’s lead on endangered species.

‘Porbeagles are a species that have been caught here for many years,’ he said. ‘I don’t think people target them any more and if Defra in the UK or the European policy on fisheries made a decision on them, then we would follow that.’

Marine enthusiast and educator Richard Lord said that people needed to be responsible.

‘There was a big fishery for them in the 1960s,’ he said. ‘They have the best eating meat of any of the sharks. The listing of them as vulnerable is a fairly new thing and there are lots of responsible anglers in Guernsey, but there is a constant battle.

‘I think everyone has to be responsible. I’m not for targeting them but I think it should be up to the individual’s choice.’

[ColinW]

I'm uncomfortable about the killing of any fish that is too big to handle easily and return alive, unless it is a recognised high value food fish. It's about time that the BRFC (and any Channel Island equivalent) removed these fish from their lists, or closed the records at their present levels.

The "trophy shots" of a dead shark or big game fish hanging from a hook don't impress me any more than one of a man standing holding a rifle with his foot on a dead tiger's head would. They belong to a less enlightened age, which some might wish for, but which has long gone.

I've only been shark fishing once, but even then at fifteen years of age I knew there was something very wrong about that beautiful creature banging away it's last moments in the hold under our feet just so the guy that caught it would have a picture of it strung up outside the SACGB office at Looe.

[chappers]

I totally agree, and to say you wouldn't have killed it if it wasn't a record is even worse in my book.

killing a fish just to get your name on a list is unacceptable in my opinion. The lad even stated that he only does recreational fishing, well maybe he should re think his idea of what recreational fishing is. IMHO i would have been happier if he had said "we had gone out commercial fishing for shark" rather than try to excuse his actions with such a flimsy reason. At least the fish didn't go to waste but I would question the legality of the sale of this fish from what I assume is an unlicensed vessel.

Hopefully the individual involved will learn something from this experience and maybe think on a bit more should he be fortunate enough to capture such a magnificent beast again.

Having recently caught my first porgie and witnessing first hand the strength of these creatures there is no way I could bring myself to kill one.

[H.A.]

What an idiot!!!

 

His credibility would have been 20 fold greater had he returned it.

 

Wasn't it Chris Yates who first returned a record carp (although I'm sure it had probably been done previously).

 

What do these people expect? World fame? Inclusion on HM's honours list?

 

Fer Christ's sake, aren't we civilised now?

Keep what you want to eat and release the rest (like a beam trawler skipper???).

 

Yep, this one touches a nerve with me.

 

Ada

 

PS I once shattered the Tompot Blenny record with a fish well in excess of 6oz.

Should I have tapped it on the head?

Edited August 16, 2007 by H.A.

[Elton]

The one small consolation in this case is that the fish was eaten. Had it been used as pot bait, or even just left to rot, then the whole sorry situation would have been even worse.

 

As an angler, imagine catching a fish like that and seeing it swim off. That's what would have made it a magic moment for me.

[Cranfield]

The porbeagle is listed by Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as vulnerable to extinction.

The convention has three lists and the shark features in Appendix II, which sets out species that are not in current danger of extinction but could become so unless trade in them is closely monitored.

 

Guernsey Press angling correspondent Len Le Page said there were no commercial fishermen in Guernsey who fished for porbeagle.

‘Fewer than 10 have been killed in local waters in the last 20 years. The French have killed lots commercially but I do not know of any Guernsey fisherman who fishes for shark intentionally,’ he said.

 

I still haven't worked out how they knew it was a record, while still at sea.

Having witnessed attempts to weigh very large fish on boats, I know it is almost impossible.

Perhaps they were able to do a length/girth calculation.

 

Its a shame it wasn't returned, but at least it was eaten and the porbeagles isn't in current danger of extinction.

10 killed in the last 20 years around Guernsey, isn't going to create a crisis anytime soon.

[Norm B]

A monster shark caught off Guernsey would still be alive – if only it had been smaller.

 

James Allen, who spent nearly an hour battling to reel in the 295lb porbeagle, said he would have set it free had it not been a record catch.

‘We weren’t planning on keeping it but we thought that it must be a record so we brought it in,’ said the 26-year-old. ‘We would have thrown it back otherwise, because it’s only recreational fishing so I don’t usually think you should keep them.’

The creature was enjoyed by many islanders yesterday as Checkers sold it for £2.99 per lb.

‘I didn’t know what to do with it so I gave it to my mate who put it in his van and took it to Checkers.’

The supermarket’s fishmonger, Simon Newton, confirmed it had been a big hit with customers.

‘We have nothing left,’ he said. ‘It’s been great and we’ve sold loads of it. It’s the fifth porbeagle we’ve had in two years and it always goes down well.’

The porbeagle is listed by Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as vulnerable to extinction.

The convention has three lists and the shark features in Appendix II, which sets out species that are not in current danger of extinction but could become so unless trade in them is closely monitored.

Guernsey Press angling correspondent Len Le Page said there were no commercial fishermen in Guernsey who fished for porbeagle.

‘Fewer than 10 have been killed in local waters in the last 20 years. The French have killed lots commercially but I do not know of any Guernsey fisherman who fishes for shark intentionally,’ he said.

‘If we were killing 50 or 60 porbeagle sharks a week, I would say hang on but there are so few that are killed. The angling commitment for shark has been extremely low-key for many years and that’s not going to change.’

Jon Torode, senior sea fisheries officer for Commerce and Employment, said Guernsey followed the EU’s lead on endangered species.

‘Porbeagles are a species that have been caught here for many years,’ he said. ‘I don’t think people target them any more and if Defra in the UK or the European policy on fisheries made a decision on them, then we would follow that.’

Marine enthusiast and educator Richard Lord said that people needed to be responsible.

‘There was a big fishery for them in the 1960s,’ he said. ‘They have the best eating meat of any of the sharks. The listing of them as vulnerable is a fairly new thing and there are lots of responsible anglers in Guernsey, but there is a constant battle.

‘I think everyone has to be responsible. I’m not for targeting them but I think it should be up to the individual’s choice.’

If you need to kill a fish to claim a record then that's what you do. The fish was eaten so not wasted and if a longliner had caught it the fish would have been just as dead, and still been eaten.

Anglers probably catch less sharks than longliners and most put them back alive. I too am a bit unsure about the legality of selling the fish but maybe the boat did have a license as I know it is much easier to get a license in the C I's and a lot of charter boats have them as they go bassing in season and sell the catch.

[thedogs]

Can anyone explain the current record situation to me please.

 

Back in the 80s when the tope record was broken twice in a matter of weeks from Bradwell-on-Sea Essex the fish were not bought ashore but the record claims were still excepted.

 

Im told now its different, that any protentual record claim has to be waighed on dry land. Is this right.

[teebee]

Replying to the thread title :-

 

No, of course it isn't, get a grip of yourself.

[happypiker]

On a similar vein but still diabolical, i once heard, not many years ago, about a Scottish pike fisherman who accidentally hooked into a Ferox trout, these are brown trout that have turned cannibal. This particular fish was in excess of 22 lb's maybe even more, now that is a leviathan, a fish worthy of any fisherman's hard graft to track and catch but worth a lot more photographed and returned to enable some other fisherman to try to tempt. He should have been strung up and bull whipped and then bled into the sea for all of us shark hunters to get the benefit of