HalcyonDaze
Contributor
Raises a few more, though. In particular, Walt's article draws a connection between the 2013 fishing season (when the opener was first changed to January 1) and the drastic drop-off in acoustic detections ... which both the figure and text state started in 2011. So the drop in lemon shark detections preceded the change from July to January by two years, with the biggest drop between 2011 and 2012. I do know that the initial reports of seeing 40 to 80 sharks in one location is something that hasn't been seen in a long while; I believe even ten years ago that was not the case. I've heard a couple competing hypotheses as to why; I'm not sure which ones are supported by facts.
There's also the matter of catch methods, which I haven't heard anything about. I'm assuming the commercial shark fishery utilizes longlines, which are usually (but not always) suspended in midwater. I'd be curious to know where those fishing vessels typically operate and how often lemons will come off the bottom and take baits in midwater. Yes, I have seen them follow us up to the surface, but that was after we started baiting them on the bottom and then ascended. Typically when I see them they are swimming low over the bottom rather than hunting in the water column. The female lemons in Jupiter were aggregated at the Wreck Trek the past two summers and were apparently not hit either time despite everyone knowing exactly where they were July 1; I'm told that the market for shark meat wasn't good enough for the commercial guys to go there. A dozen lemons isn't much of a payoff, especially when it's a one-time gig.
I'm not defending this rule change; I'm just putting points up that NMFS is likely to be considering so those in favor of taking some sort of action (petitioning or calling) don't run off half-cocked and give NMFS the impression that the opposition to this rule change is 100% emotional and 0% factual. I can tell you that they do not care if the sharks have names, or how much money shark diving brings in - it's a fishery, and their consideration is balancing the long-term sustainability of the population with the economic interests of the fishing industry. They are especially not going to be swayed by assertions that the lemon sharks were "wiped out" last winter when a) the season was closed until July in 2014 and b) five minutes on YouTube blows that assertion out of the water.
