Save the Sharks

If you’re a fan of oysters and clams but you like to catch and kill sharks, read on. Not only are our beloved bivalves plagued by pollution, disease, and the loss of (oyster reef) habitat, but now there’s the menace of the cownose ray. They suck holes in the underwater grass beds in search of clams, and they pluck oysters off of reefs, which they crack open with their powerful jaws.

This probably wouldn’t be a problem, except that we’ve hurt the marine environment with nutrient pollution which promotes oyster disease, and we've removed most of the protective oyster reefs themselves. We’ve also decimated our shellfish by killing too many sharks, which prey on rays. The end result is that ray populations are now considered by some to be “hyperabundant”.

Cownose Rays

Some have proposed finding a market to deal with the problem. Organizations like The Virginia Marine Products Board say that it tastes like steak and belongs on the menu, served with wine sauce, lemon and capers.

But, this isn't the answer either. Rays reproduce like sharks, slowly, unlike bony fish (striped bass and croaker) that disperse thousands of eggs. Instead, they bear just one to a few pups. So if we harvest rays en masse, they’ll be next on the endangered species list.

But the vehemence of some is fervent. Once, I witnessed a lowlife goon on a local fishing pier who stabbed a hapless ray to death, and then chucked the carcass overboard.

When I asked him, why? he said, “Those pests eat all of the shellfish.”

I replied that humans do much greater damage to the shellfish.

So, what can the responsible angler do? The next time you catch a shark, gently release it. If you absolutely must show it to friends and family, snap a jpeg and set it free, because sharks, especially bulls, tigers and sandbars, and cobia, are the only predators that eat cownose rays. Plus, they're not nearly as beautiful, dead.

Sharks and the other large predators of the deep are an essential part to any hope that we might have of restoring the ecology of the oceans. Another way to look at it is, if you kill a shark, you've wasted perfectly good shellfish that filter Bay water, provide habitat for other critters, keep our watermen in business, and taste great.

Plus, sharks are cool! They’re streamlined marvels of evolution that have been swimming in the oceans since before the dinosaurs. Their scales closely resemble teeth. Their teeth replace themselves. They have a sense of smell that rivals a bloodhound. They sense electrical fields of other fishes, and some are even warm blooded.

Sharks are awesome and killing them is stupid. If you ask me, and yes I once tried it, they don’t even taste good. All fishes osmoregulate (deal with salt), and most sharks do it with urea in their flesh, which we excrete as metabolic waste, you know, pee.

Plus, shark is full of mercury. For this reason the EPA recommends that people, especially pregnant women and those who plan to be, not eat shark. So let them go.

They already have it bad enough. In addition to the slaughter wrought by the uninformed recreational fishermen, longliners catch gazillions of them just to cut off their fins and throw them dying back into the blue, so that some special guys can jazz up the libidos with a bowl of shark fin soup. One word, Viagra.



Worried they’re going to eat you? Chances are slim to none. You’re much more likely to get shot, in a fatal car wreck, or even struck by lightning, even if you swim in the ocean daily.

So, whether you catch a mako on that vacation charter with the guys from the office, or you just happen into a small sandbar while flounder fishing, for gosh sakes, set them free. You have nothing to gain, unless you’re desperately hungry, or a really un-cool evil hater of the oceans.