European record six gill Shark - Discussion

[Bradan]

I've no time for him normally, trash journalism, but this was one of the most serious and researched pieces I've seen him write. He doesn't exactly sit on the fence though!

[eric]

i honest well writtten article that sums up my sentiments excactly,

[jw]

There's a good program you should watch on national geographic eric, its called Dangerous Encounters - Jurassic
shark. A lot of it features footage of scientists off Hawaii long lining for the six gill in order to study it. In the program
the scientists state the six gill constitutes the largest biomass of any shark species and they consider it important
to study it as so little is known about it.

You friend in the independent is not going to let this truth get in the way of his rant, starting off with the statement
that a fish from an extremely rare species has been killed

This shark seems almost as famous as michael jackson now, i met the skipper on carrigaholt pier yesteday
hurrying off to be interviewed by the BBC

[slowarm]

There's a good program you should watch on national geographic eric, its called Dangerous Encounters - Jurassic
shark. A lot of it features footage of scientists off Hawaii long lining for the six gill in order to study it. In the program
the scientists state the six gill constitutes the largest biomass of any shark species and they consider it important
to study it as so little is known about it.

You friend in the independent is not going to let this truth get in the way of his rant, starting off with the statement
that a fish from an extremely rare species has been killed

This shark seems almost as famous as michael jackson now, i met the skipper on carrigaholt pier yesteday
hurrying off to be interviewed by the BBC

I'm willing to bet Michael Jackson is more famous now.


(sorry jw, mods..... couldn't resist.)

However, I am struck by comments made in this thread when compared to comments made in the thread on Seals. Maybe I am seeing through a glass darkly, but are some people speaking out of both sides of their mouths?

For the record, I would not have taken the beast. Perhaps I'm too old, or perhaps not old enough, but knowing what I'd caught would have been good enough for me. How many times have you fished on your own, made a decent catch and left it at that? You know what you did and what you didn't and you shouldn't need a piece of paper to remind you. But I do not think what happened really matters in the bigger scheme of things. As was said earlier in the thread, one trip of a commercial fishing vessel does mutiple times more damage than happened here.

[Rarefish]

While I understand all of the genuine emotions expressed regarding the killing of this magnificant shark (I too was also sad to see it), I think that we need to be objective. Leaving aside the negative hysteria and begrudgery expressed by some anglers (and environmentalists) and the disgraceful and potentially slanderous remarks made by some media reporters, I would like to congratulate Mr Waldis on his achievement.

I have a database on c.300 six-gill sharks from Irish and other northern European waters going back to the mid 1880s. Very little is actually known about the species biology in northern European waters and there is currently no scientific proof that the species is endangered (or indeed even rare) in Irish waters. Fortunately, a thorough scientific examination (and autopsy) of the current specimen was carried out by a specialist shark biologist and the data will be invaluable in contributing to our understanding of the species biology and conservation needs. In the absence of any critical biological information on local stocks, we cannot know what we are talking about. It should be remembered that thousands of fish are sacrificied every year as part of biological fish stock assessments by both the Marine Institute and Central Fisheries Board in order to have a proper basis on with to apply stock management regulations. Rather than being wasted, biological details gained from the current specimen (along with the 300 specimens in my database) will help us to formulate a proper management plan for six-gill sharks.

[The Austrian]

In the absence of any critical biological information on local stocks, we cannot know what we are talking about....Rather than being wasted, biological details gained from the current specimen...will help us to formulate a proper management plan for six-gill sharks.

+1 I fully agree, well spoken