Shark washes up on Pender Harbour beach

[Sushihunter]

http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/Shark+washes+Pender+Harbour+beach/4989878/story.html


Shark washes up on Pender Harbour beach

Amy Judd, Global News: Thursday, June 23, 2011

Shark washes up on beach in Garden Bay
Photo Credit: G&S Gauvin


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.FBConnectButton_Small{ background-position:-5px -232px !important; border-left:1px solid #1A356E;} .FBConnectButton_Small .FBConnectButton_Text{ margin-left:12px !important; padding:2px 3px 3px !important} SUNSHINE COAST – A female shark was struggling to breathe as it clung to life on Monday after washing up on the rocky beach of Garden Bay in Pender Harbour.

Resident Vera Horicky has lived in Garden Bay for 17 years, but said she has never seen anything like it before.


“It was so sad,” she told Global BC. “We don’t talk about [anything] else, only her.”

Horicky said she saw her neighbours taking pictures on the beach that morning, so she grabbed her husband and camera and went to take a look for herself. She saw what turned out to be a bluntnose sixgill shark, which was listed under the Species at Risk Act as a species of 'Special Concern' in 2009, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).


Horicky didn’t know what kind of shark it was, only that it was dying, and had blood covering its underside and the surrounding rocks.


Her husband and neighbours doused the shark with water for a few hours, but when the DFO arrived, it was already dead.


While it is not uncommon to see sharks in the waters off British Columbia, there are 14 species according to the DFO, Horicky had never seen anything like it.

“She got stuck between the big rocks,” she said of the shark. “She scraped her stomach on the rocks.”


The shark weighed at least 1,400 pounds, and Horicky hopes others get a chance to see what it is the water off our coastlines.


“I sent all of my friends an email because how often do you see something like that?” she asked.


The DFO said they were not able to surmise why the shark died, but a Fisheries Officer took measurements of the shark and tissue samples for research so that more can be learned about the species.


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[Steelhead S2]

I remember about 15 years ago there was a big one caught around the A-Frame too. Neat to see, but too bad for the shark.

 

[Dogbreath]

I remember the A frame-caught some nice fish there back in the day.

 

[Bait tricks]

Steak it up and feed the poor..

 

[Heavyc]

Steak it up and feed the crab traps

 

[Secretpursuit]

Recall twenty years ago having one make three or four passes around the boat off the bottom of Texada. Scared the bag of the wife and kids, must have been 15 feet in length. Contacted UBC, Vancouver Aquarium & DFO and advised their quite common down 300 plus feet in the area. At the time they were running astudy as they were believed to have knocked off the immature Lings in the area. Shortly after, they ended up being listed in the regs. as hands off. Sad for the beached one, but good to see their around. Do believe I'll be looking over my shoulder my next dip in the bay at Pender off the dock.

 

[ReelSlim]

A friend of mine in Alberni sent me this picture in the spring. It was floating dead in the canal and they hoisted it up at the Colsun's (SP) saw mill.......DFO came out and to check it out. Apparently it had a dozen or so pups in it when it died. Impressive fish for sure....

 

[Peahead]

Thanks for that Jim,

Many years ago we used to scuba dive with Sixgills off Flora / SE Hornby Is. - You would sit in 70-80 feet of water and bang your tank with a rock and the sixgills would show up in minutes. They seem to be attracted by the sound but apparently would arrive in shallow waters off Hornby in August to feed ( normally they would be in very deep waters). Often more than one would drift in slowly from above you and before you know it would come right along side of you. The first time one of these huge sharks suddenly appears beside you - its freaky but an experience that I will never forget. The sixgill seems curious and just as interested in you as we are of them. The sharks we swam with were anywhere from about 9-12 feet long. One time I held onto one to see if it would allow me to hold on and it pulled me along for a bit but then swished its tail knocking me off but they never moved very fast and seemed rather docile. I recall the skin being very coarse to touch, like #50 sandpaper.

A view I will never forget was looking up at the waters surface from the bottom at 80 feet and seeing a sixgill coming down to me about 15 feet above me . Behind the Sixgill about 30 feet and sittig about 30 feet below the water's surface was a school of 20-30 coho milling about, all silloetted against the sunshine steaming down into the depths. Now that is priceless.

 

[Charter Tofino]

I have heard they are not legal to target for C&R. Is this true?

 

[Peahead]

A sixgill has to be released if you do hook one and manage to get it to the boat (A fisherman landed and killed one up on the sunshine coast a few years back not realizing what it was and that sixgills were zero retention) I don't think see how you could stop people from fishing for them unless you completely closed and area at a certain time of year when you knew they were there. If you used a similar method as targeting halibut or lingcod I don't think you could enforce a no C&R on them. I suppose they could curtail it with a heavy gear/line and hook type/size restriction ??

I suppose you could say I "caught" and released one ?? ( in my post above ) lol

 

[Last Chance]

You would need some heavy duty gear to keep the nose of the thing from chafing your mainline. We are talkinbg about a near 3 foot spreader bar.

I don't know if they would fight a lot, I think they would be a lot like a Dogfish. They don't seem to be as fat and "built" as a salmon shark or a great white.

 

[Fish-Hunter]

If I were going to try and fish for them, I would talk to Osama Bin Hopper first, but be aware, you have got to have some big balls to fish for these things

I don't see how they could do anything about a C&R for them, as is that not what you are supposed to do IF you catch one?