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The Tax man!

The TAX man…!

It’s not a good feeling…that thud, and thump as the taxman grabs a-hold of your fish, shaking it around and tearing it up. It must have been a big shark that halved this nice yellowfin, off Bazaruto! There are some monsters swimming those waters…big enough to start to eat a 1200 pound marlin right at the boat, after a five hour tussle…which is what happened on Vamizi, skippered by Captain Duarte Rato, a few seasons back! Talk about the top of the food chain.

Or is it?

Hammerhead Shark on Tofo Beach

(c) Johnny Cash
(c) Johnny Cash

A “brown marlin” – aka Hammerhead Shark get’s a taste of it’s own medicine…at the hands of mere men! This is on the beach at Tofo. Nature sure is cruel, and we are certainly a big part of it all as we devour and demolish…much like the Tiger Sharks and Zambezis of Bazaruto…

This Bazaruto Zambezi is neatly hooked in the mouth with a huge circle hook. These hooks have revolutionised the tag and release scene, as they miss internal organs and possible injury, and hook neatly in the side of the mouth – every time (almost!). This shark and all other sharks caught on Vamizi, are released healthy and ready to destroy another prized live bait!

“Something’s chasing me!”

 

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Tiger Shark catch off Umtentweni

Cptn Brian Lange takes us through the Umzimkulu River Mouth launch and fishing for the morning. Using MYDO lures and livebaits, we only managed a nice Tiger Shark that Mike Stubbs filmed up close and personal with his GoPro camera, which was then nicely tail swiped by the angry shark. A clean release and back home through the river mouth in stereoscopic video – not quite 3D but you definitely get the picture.

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If fishing is 90% preparation…

…then we shoulda had something in the hatch this day…!
A week of tackle prep…an endless tally of MYDO lures and traces…perfect livebait…beautiful water…crack of dawn launch…etc…

However, our tally for the day…
– 1 Porpoise (first time ever this has happened with any of us, but a porpoise chowed the very first live bait in the water, almost immediately! We pulled the hooks out luckily. Sorry Mr. Porpoise.)
– 1 Tiger Shark can you believe it. On a MYDO #4 Orange and a walla walla.
– 1 Striped Marlin…came into the spread all lit up and anxious…went from bait to bait and then ate Mike’s mackeral…spat the single treble after a good run…
And a turtle that followed us around…

Our second launch for the day had young Keegs and Josh aboard, who each caught a rockod, as did Lee (Josh’s mom). Bela’s Mozambican Restaurant at Spiller’s Wharf prepared the fantastic seafood feast for supper whilst the Boks trounced the Italians…

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Great White killed at Sunwich Port

Great White Shark Tracking Project
Great White Tracking Project
Great White Tracking Project

In a wierd twist within the Osearch Shark Tracking story we started to follow last week, one of the tagged Great White Sharks was caught and killed by the Natal Sharks Board at none other than our favourite surfing beach – Sunwich Port, down here on the south coast of Kwazulu Natal!
The beautiful fish weighed 300 odd kilograms and was taken to the NSB headquarters in Umhlanga for analysis and whatever else they do to the carcasses there.
The shark took a drum line bait and must have died a horrible and gruesome death…much like a snared wild animal poached in a game reserve.
The Natal Sharks Board have systematically decimated the local shark population of Zambezi, Tiger and other sharks here on the KZN south coast and unfortunately, pelagic sharks like Great Whites also fall prey to their killing methods.
Drum lines are a move towards lessening their indiscriminate impact on the environment…but gill nets are still deployed up and down the beautiful Kwazulu Natal South Coast. These gill nets have been killing dolphins, turtles, rays, sharks (lethal and non-lethal) and other forms of marine life like whales for the better part of half a century now.
A bureaucratic organization – funded by municipalities and the tax payer…the Natal Sharks Board and it’s staff and management can be credited with the most cruel ocean animal killings imaginable.
All to protect the tourist dollar as inland punters flock to the Kwazulu Natal coastline each school holiday.
The shark nets do not cordon off a beach from sharks at all – many, if not most sharks are caught on their way back out to sea…on the inside side of the nets. What the nets and drum lines do is reduce the local population of lethal sharks in an area…seriously unbalancing the ecology in that immediate area.
Twisting the story even further…another shark attack was recorded at Port St Johns, down the coast in the Transkei. Port St. Johns has the highest incidence of shark attacks in the world.
Solutions? Many solutions to the shark attack problem are available. Shark spotters are deployed in the clear waters of the Cape…sonar has been proposed to the NSB as a monitoring system in dirtier waters of KZN, but was ignored completely…
Observation and avoidance using technology would far outweigh simple killing and eradication.

Check out the Osearch project here…https://thesardine.co.za/?p=1153

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