All new, member only Beanies – get yours now at Shark Angling Club of Great Britain (sumupstore.com)

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.

The price for the 2023 Festival in Looe has now been confirmed at £500. This is only a £50 per person increase from last year.

This has been achieved by allocating ten boats for the Festival, with eight of the boats having 5 anglers on board per day, one boat with 4 anglers per day and one boat with 3 anglers per day. The Committee felt that this was preferable to raising the cost of the Festival too much for the anglers by keeping the usual 4 anglers per boat, which could have priced out some of our regular attendees.

We look forward to seeing you all soon!

The current position of this proposal is that the JNCC have made their recommendation to Defra who will share it with the House of Commons and the House of Lords before reaching/communicating the final decision. 

None of this will happen before a new PM is appointed and both houses return from their summer break. As we get closer to the time when the politicians will have sight of the JNCC recommendation it is even more important that we don’t provide those who proposed the ban with any more material they can use. 

Images, even if they are showing best practise, are routinely manipulated and used against the sport. Reports of caught fish, long fight times etc are also be used against us.  

The vast majority of charter skippers have heavily edited their Porbeagle posts and many have stopped them entirely this year. Reducing their business marketing is a big sacrifice for these businesses and we should all respect that by not making any posts ourselves unless you are 100% sure they are being posted in a private site.  

One bad image or piece of poor reporting when we are so close to both houses reviewing the JNCC recommendation could easily change the minds of politicians who currently have a neutral view to one where they support the ban.  

If we are to succeed in challenging this proposed ban, all participants in the sport, whether they are commercial or private individuals, need to work together on this and resist any temptation to post stuff. 

Once a post is made, we lose any opportunity to challenge any misinformation put in the minds of the politicians and the public by the media. All it takes is one post, no matter how correct it is, to be manipulated and incorrectly presented for recreational sea angling for Porbeagle to be banned and that would just be the start  – bans on other shark species would quickly follow.

Please help us challenge this ban by either not posting any porbeagle material or only sharing it to 100% private sites

Please note that due to the closure of the last remaining bank in Looe, we are no longer accepting cheques or cash. We can accept paypal payments to: sacgbsecretary@gmail.com or bank transfer to

Lloyds bank account number: 00692083 sort code: 30 95 08

Its a record! Richard Day has won the SACGB Festival for a third time, making it into the record books with his fish of 108 points!

The Shark Angling Club of Great Britain (SACGB) wish to register their concern regarding the potential inclusion of the Porbeagle in schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside ACT (WCA). We feel that the inclusion of the Porbeagle on a list which contains species such as the Burbot (which is considered extinct in UK watercourses), is an overreaction, which does not reflect the current state of the stock for the species and maybe used to promote a ban on the recreational catch and release Porbeagle fishery in the UK.

The SACGB are totally committed to shark conservation and have been active in promoting good handling practices and conservation of shark species.

Over the past years the SACGB have been working closely with scientists, many whom were totally unaware of the populations and geographical extent of shark species in UK waters.

Many have come to realise the only way to study these creatures is to go aboard a sharking boat, rather than rely on data from an unmotivated commercial fleet who provide only dead sharks.

The SACGB has an unparalleled database of shark captures dating back to the 1950s with an effort component, thus is in a unique position monitor for the numbers and locations of the shark captures throughout UK waters in near real-time.

As indicated by the recent paper submitted to ICCAT from SACGB and many other shark skippers’ data, there has been an increase of Porbeagle numbers and of geographical spread since the zero Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for commercial targeting in 2010.. The data shows increases in both recruitment of year 0 fish and of sub-adult and adult fish in UK waters, with fish returning to areas that they have been absent from since the 1970s.

Of particular concern is the affect of any ban on the north coast of Devon and Cornwall  recreational fishery for the Porbeagle .

The charter boats that work this coast are well aware of the importance of this area and how the welfare of the shark are paramount both the recovery of stocks and to their livelyhoods and as such have committed to stringent handline guidelines that they have developed. No sharks are boarded, the use of circle hooks are mandatory to reduce gut hooking and fight times are reduced by the use of suitable tackle.

Recent data from Exeter University and the Sulikowski Shark and Fish Conservation Lab in the USA indicated excellent outcomes for recreationally captured Porbeagle and the time series data from this area suggests that populations are increasing.

The impact of the inclusion of the Porbeagle in schedule 5 of the WCA may not provide any additional protection for the fish and threatens the ability of scientists and angler to cooperate to provide data on a species that ICCAT acknowledge are hugely understudied. In addition recent experience of banning of large pelagic fish in the UK have proved unsuccessful and have in fact led to the inexperienced angler targeting fish rather than use experienced skippers with a proven track record of high welfare standards, who can no longer operate.

The SACGB will continue their commitment to shark conservation and acknowledge that any potential recovery in Porbeagle stocks is tentative, due to the long generation times and low fecundity of the species. However, we consider the inclusion of the Porbeagle in schedule 5 of the WCA to be an overreaction and detrimental to both the scientific understanding and recovery of this iconic apex predator.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Woodman

Chairman SACGB

Over the past couple of months there has been much chat on social media about the boating and none boating of sharks. These are being made by skippers and individuals who have their own opinions but do not represent the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain.

We have at the SACGB, a Shark handling guide in a best practice document. We are continually looking to update this document as we deem necessary and as more information about shark welfare becomes available.

In this document there is a comprehensive section on the ways of unhooking the captured shark either at the side of the boat or if the shark is boarded.

We also have recommended ways of boarding the sharks and what you should not do.

We believe that the skipper makes the decision on the best and safest method for each shark caught.

For the last couple of years now the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain has been working alongside Marine biologists from different universities and countries.

These biologist have all approached the club with a range of ideas and requests, but none of them were aware of the shark fishery that we have in this country.

The one thing that has come out of working with these experts is that our methods are good and they are often surprised by the care shown and the speed that boated sharks are returned to swim away.

We are at the end of the day an angling club, you need to have a shark of a certain size to become a member. We are continually working to look at new methods to accurately establish the weight of a shark in the water. At the moment we do not have one.

The rules we changed last year so those of you wishing not to boat sharks can with as much photographic evidence as possible put in a claim for trophies and as a result of this a none boated shark won the Mitchel Hedges trophy last year.

SACGB.

2020 SHARK FESTIVAL

The 2020 Shark Angling Club Annual Festival was cancelled this year due to Covid-19.