Its nearly the start of a new season, time to be knocking the cobwebs off your gear.
As you all know the first fish of the year are historically targeted on the North Devon, Somerset, and North Cornwall coast. This year nothing has changed, the same trophies can be fished for as last season.
The proposal to put a self-imposed closed season for these early Sharks at the AGM was not correctly administered.
Any new proposal needs a seconder and must be submitted to the committee at least 30 days before the AGM in writing.
The fishery is unique with the local skippers very experienced in handling these big Sharks. The species is poorly understood and ICCAT have acknowledged this and recently launched a project to collect more genetic data for the species, a need which can’t be met without the input of recreational sea angling.
All catch information is logged and is added to the Pat Smith database. This is the second largest Shark database in the world.
The importance of this fishery for understanding porbeagle ecology can’t be understated and is supported by the SACGB.