Sonik join the fight for the future of shark fishing!

Sharks are a highly important fish for sea anglers around the UK. They are very powerful animals; they grow large, and offer anglers perhaps the best opportunity of getting their strings severely pulled. Further to that, they are also a key link in the food chain - removal of which would lead to catastrophic effects in the marine environment. Anglers visit certain shark hotspots in numbers at certain times of the year, and if the threatened stocks are gone, the effects will roll right across the chain, from local economies, to anglers enjoyment, fishing tackle manufacturers and much more.

When you look at the Spurdog as an individual shark species, it’s easy to see why they could, and indeed have been, easily exploited. The spurdog, or spiny dogfish, which can live to 75 years, and can weigh as much as 20lb. A double figure spurdog is almost certainly 30 years old. Further to that, females ‘pup’ together, and have a gestation period of two years. Populations of the shark whose numbers have dropped so low it is now on conservationists' lists of "critically endangered" creatures, are in the same ‘almost extinct’ stamp as pandas.

Even though spurdog are at 5% of their original biomass and evidence from anglers suggests that Lochs Sunart and Etive and surrounding waters have unique resident populations and that the spurdog pup in the region, Cabinet Secretary Lochhead and the Marine Directorate still require further evidence before they will to take any action to protect them. To facilitate this, the SSACN Tagathon was borne, and I just had to go along to see how events would unfold.

The main aims of the weekend was to tag as many spurdog as possible from the shore and boat and to raise the public awareness of the urgent need for sharks, ray and skate protection in Scottish waters – which in turn would provide evidence to encourage the politicians to introduce protection measures.

Everything was set, and the group met at Salen, which is a small village on the shores of Loch Sunart, where we shared stories, had some beer and eagerly anticipated the next day. The whole gang met at the slipway at Resipole caravan site, where tagging kits were given out by a member of the Shark Trust, and shore and boat anglers headed their separate ways. I was going to be fishing aboard Mathew Burrett’s boat, ‘OnyerMarks Too’, along with good mate Adam Riach, and SSACN secretary Denis Kelly. The fishing was extremely slow to begin with, but over the VHF radio’s things were beginning to look up. Stuart Creswell and his boat partner Willie Kennedy both boated cracking spurdog over 15lb in quick succession, then moments later Les McBride aboard his boat landed a 15lb spur of a smidgen over 15lb. All fish were tagged and released. We had hours of unrelenting lesser spotted dogfish activity, but eventually, Denis from the SSACN offered our boat team a glimmer of pride in the form of a cracking 11lb spurdog – it was fantastic to see such a fish tagged, and put back into the sea.

All fish recaptured over the coming years will be valuable in learning about the movements of spurdog, the breeding migrations, and if there are any patterns. Each tag has a unique number on it, along with a web address for the Shark Trust and an address for any correspondence. Unfortunately, that was to be the end of all of our Spurdog activity aboard ‘OnyerMarks Too’ for the weekend, but we did have some fantastic fun with conger eels up to 15lb, and thornback rays – the best of which fell to skipper Mathew who landed a huge ray of over 9lb.

A monumental refreshment session was had in the pub that night, where we discussed the future of the much loved spurdog, and anglers came outside into the wet dreary night to have a play with the new Sonik tackle. Unfortunately, all of the shore anglers were fishing, so it was a hard sell to a group of boat anglers – but it was good brand awareness nonetheless.

Before closing this report, I would like to give a special mention to the anglers who were participating in the Tagathon from Kayak. My dad John was fishing with Kayaking expert Paul Spooner. As we motored home, Paul hooked into goliath, and battled a huge common skate of well over 130lbs single handed. The fish was photographed, measured and release – what an achievement; one that proves there is more to a Kayak than a floating plank!

Winner of the Sonik £50 voucher for heaviest spurdog tagged – John Wilson