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A shark is handled on an East Hampton dock. A new law now requires a certain type of hook for catch and release tournaments.
Governor Andrew Cuomo this week signed a bill that will require all participants in shark fishing tournaments to use hooks designed to be less harmful to the fish that they snare.
The bill, sponsored by State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, forces tournament fishermen to use “circle hooks” for shark fishing to make it more likely that sharks that are not contenders be released relatively unharmed.
Developed by Japanese fishermen centuries ago and used by commercial longline fishermen for decades, the point of a circle hook curves deeply downward causing it to drag across the inside of a fish’s mouth until it reaches the notch of the jaw, where the sharp point lodges as the rest of the hook is pulled out of the mouth, making it much less likely the hook will lodge in the fish’s throat and cause injury. Many shark tournaments, under fire from environmentalists, had already begun requiring their contestants to use circle hooks and have upped minimum sizes for fish that may be killed to contend for prizes. One tournament in Montauk has even turned to a catch-and-release-only format.
MICHAEL WRIGHT
Staff Writer on Jul 22, 2016