400 Sharks caught during 2015 South Jersey Tournament

Results of the 2015 South Jersey Shark Tournament
with a review of the catch summary from 2010 to 2015

Helmut Nickel (mail), Shark Year Magazine,
20. June 2015

35th Annual South Jersey Shark Tournament
Location: South Jersey Marina, Cape May, New Jersey, USA
Date: 10. to 13. June 2015

With 101 participating boats in this year’s South Jersey Shark Tournament, anglers reportedly caught a total of 400 sharks during the three days of the fishing competition.

Forty of those sharks were retained and the vast majority of 90 percent was released alive.

The catch summary comprises eight different species, with the mako shark being the most abundant one (256 individuals, 64 %). The species composition can be viewed in table 1. below.

The team aboard ‘Shadow’ won the prize for the Heaviest Shark by catching a 471 pounds thresher shark. ‘Miller Mania II’ brought the heaviest mako shark to the weigh-in station with a 295 pounder, and the boat ‘Island Girl’ took home the prize for the heaviest blue shark of the tournament ( 221 pounds ). More details on those catches and additional relevant weigh-ins are listed below.

An overview on the number and species of sharks caught
during the South Jersey Shark Tournament from 2010 to 2015 (see also table 2) :

Over the last five years, a total of 1.591 shark catches were officially reported by the teams that took part in this annual fishing competition.
The majority ( 1.402 individuals ) was released alive and 189 sharks were landed. Most of those killed specimens were Mako sharks of course ( with 125 individuals ).

Three federally protected species are presented in the tournament’s catch statistic since 2010. It’s the sandbar shark, dusky shark and one specimen of the great white shark which was released in 2012.

Recommendation regarding catches of Thresher sharks :

The total number of thresher shark catches is relatively small and even insignificant compared to the number of mako and blue shark catches.

But according to the tournament’s catch data published for the years 2010 through 2015,
the thresher shark is the only species where the clear majority of the catches was not released. To be more precise: 74 percent of the thresher sharks ( = 37 of the 50 reported specimens ) were killed and landed.

This is a significant contrast to the other shark species where the participating anglers released by far the bigger proportion of each species caught, as you can see in table 2.

Therefore, South Jersey Tournaments should consider to increase the minimum weight requirement for thresher sharks in order to discourage competitors from landing smaller threshers with no or slim chance to qualify for the leaderboard.

In previous years of the South Jersey Tournament, the minimum weight for all sharks used to be 200 lbs.

But under consideration of the relatively high proportion of landed thresher sharks (in comparison to the number of released threshers), it would be worth considering to change the rules for next year’s tournament by appropriately increasing the minimum weight for this species.

 

Tables and 2015 Weigh-Ins

south jersey tour tab2015_use

south jer 2010_15 species

2015 Tournament Results :

Number of entrants: 101 boats
Total Payout: $345,128.00

Weigh-Ins ( Base Prize Categories )

Heaviest Shark :
Species: Thresher shark ( Alopias vulpinus )
Weight: 471 lbs
Boat: Shadow
Date: 11. June 2015

2nd Heaviest Shark :
Species: Thresher shark ( Alopias vulpinus )
Weight: 463 lbs
Boat: Knot Workin II
Date: 11. June 2015

3rd Heaviest Shark :
Species: Thresher shark ( Alopias vulpinus )
Weight: 439 lbs
Boat: Dewars in Water
Date: 11. June 2015

—-

Heaviest Mako :
Species: Shortfin mako shark ( Isurus oxyrinchus )
Weight: 295 lbs
Boat: Miller Mania II
Date: 11. June 2015

2nd Heaviest Mako :
Species: Shortfin mako shark ( Isurus oxyrinchus )
Weight: 200 lbs
Boat: Thumbs Up
Date: 11. June 2015

—-

Heaviest Blue Shark :
Species: Blue shark (Prionace glauca)
Weight: 221 lbs
Boat: Island Girl
Date: 13. June 2015

—-

Additional Reported Weigh-Ins:

Species: Thresher shark ( Alopias vulpinus )
Weight: 397 lbs
Boat: Knot Workin II
Date: 12. June 2015

Species: Thresher shark ( Alopias vulpinus )
Weight: 370 lbs
Boat: Common Sense
Date: 11. June 2015

Species: Thresher shark ( Alopias vulpinus )
Weight: 361 lbs
Boat: UnReel
Date: 11. June 2015

Species: Blue shark ( Prionace glauca )
Weight: 206 lbs
Boat: Tin Knocker
Date: 12. June 2015

Species: Shortfin mako shark ( Isurus oxyrinchus )
Weight: 190 lbs
Boat: Cracker Jack
Date: 11. June 2015
Note: did not qualify (200 lbs minimum weight)

Species: Shortfin mako shark ( Isurus oxyrinchus )
Weight: 172 lbs
Boat: Night Stalker II
Date: 12. June 2015
Note: did not qualify (200 lbs minimum weight)

Source: South Jersey Tournaments

 

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