Protection Urged For Species At Public Workshop

October 25, 2009

Release from: Susan Cocking
Miami Herald

Conservationists far outnumbered commercial fishermen at a public workshop Tuesday in Dania Beach on whether to ban the take of lemon sharks in Florida waters.

The majority of speakers at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-sponsored meeting urged that lemons be added to the state's recently updated list of prohibited species. But a handful of commercial fishers from Palm Beach County pleaded for their livelihoods.

The movement to protect lemon sharks was born last summer during public workshops to gather input on bringing Florida's shark laws into line with measures adopted by the 15-member Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Several species of sharks have been granted stronger protection, but not lemons -- even though federal fisheries managers consider them to be the most vulnerable of 33 large coastal shark species.

Lemon sharks are long-lived and slow to reach sexual maturity. They produce litters averaging a dozen pups only every two to three years. They often are found in nearshore, shallow-water habitats that are under siege from coastal development.

The lemons' annual migration and aggregation patterns are predictable, making them easy prey for commercial fishers -- especially during the winter months off Jupiter, where large groups of sexually mature animals congregate near artificial reefs.

Several speakers at Tuesday's meeting noted the value of sharks to the marine ecosystem -- thinning out weak and infirm animals and keeping the environment in balance. Others cited economic impact studies showing that shark meat is worth about $1 per pound, while a live shark -- viewed by recreational divers and caught and released by recreational anglers over the course of its life -- is valued as much as $150,000.

University of Miami shark scientist Samuel ``Doc'' Gruber said his 40 years of research on lemon sharks worldwide shows they ``cannot be rationally exploited.''

Gruber said a 1995 to 2009 study of 3,000 baby lemon sharks showed they came from only 83 mothers.

``Their life history is like whales, like ours,'' Gruber said. ``I am here . . . to ask the FWC to step up to the plate and use the precautionary principle to preserve what's left of the lemon shark stocks.''

West Palm Beach commercial shark fisherman Robert Kiselak said he and his colleagues should continue to be allowed to take a limited number of lemons.

``I have an agenda. I need to catch a few,'' Kiselak said. ``There's ways around this -- make us release the large females. Close an area -- we can't go there.''

Former shark fisherman Mike Newman of Tequesta said he quit catching sharks commercially a few years ago in order to help researchers such as Gruber perform tagging studies on the lemons off Jupiter. Newman urged enhanced protection for the species.

The FWC is expected to review the lemon shark issue at its December meeting in Clewiston.