Great White Shark Culling/Hunting

[TyrannosaurusJordan]

After seeing the whale and dolphin thread I decided it was time for me to post a topic I've been meaning to post for a while. I want to hear your guys opinions on the possibility of opening a sustainable hunt for the great white shark.

First of all, I am fully understanding of why people want to have great whites totally protected. They are very slow growing, slow breeding apex predators, with one study finding that they take 26 years to reach sexual maturity in males and 33 years in females. An 11 month gestation period is estimated for the species, though very little about their reproduction is known for sure. This slow breeding rate is the only real objection I have to this idea, as, combined with a recently declined (though now recovering in the North Pacific and North Atlantic at least, with the former population estimated at around 2,400 adults) population may make them impossible to harvest sustainably, at least on the commercial fishing scale. Some also argue that cage diving makes more money than fishing, but many regions have been able to balance hunting with ecotourism just fine, as most on this site will attest.

We probably don't have enough knowledge of great white breeding habits to open up a hunt immediately, particularly how much offspring they produce and how many of those survive till maturity, but assuming they produced a few offspring, I don't see why a very limited annual or biannual hunt (like Namibia's five black rhinos a year policy) in somewhere like the North Pacific couldn't be technically sustainable. It'd have to be a literally handful of course, maybe 3-5 sharks a year of a certain age group (no pregnant sharks, etc), but if these were auctioned off as tickets I could see a lot of money being made with each ticket, which could go to the conservation of more imperiled sharks and rays, such as whale sharks, manta rays, hammerheads and sawfish.

What are your opinions, hunters? Could it be time to open up a small hunt of great white sharks? I've attached a picture of late shark hunter Frank Mundus with a great white he caught.

 

[bluey]

a ballot to harvest white sharks in many places would be the smartest conservation , strategy to date for the white pointer shark

places where tagging has been the best tracking of these highly migatory apex predators to date,namely south Africa and California... shows that many of these sharks are never seen again , after tagging
which makes estimating their numbers even harder ( is there more than science predicts? or are they accidently killed by rec.fishers and pro fisherman, alike in incedentle encounters?)
where satellite tracking tags have been used . shows they travel huge distances ,to be in the same vicinities , at the same time .every year or 2
they only give birth to only one young pup each pregnancy . to my knowledge , the young eat each other while in the stages of development , same as makos, oceanic white tips, and other sharks that usually live lonesome lives
in my opinion , a ballot would , put a whole lots of revenue straight in to white shark conservation .

 

[gillettehunter]

Interesting idea. Probably some folks that that would pay big bucks to to it. Bruce

 

[rinehart0050]

Interesting. Beyond the challenges of accurately estimating the population, I suspect it would be very difficult to effectively hunt them. You'd probably have to target them when they congregate for feeding and I think we are limited right now in our ability to effectively identify a "huntable" male.

You would also need to consider how the species responds to being hunted. I saw a documentary a while back about a pod of killer whales that hunts great whites. As soon as they killed one great white, all the great whites cleared out of the area (near San Francisco) and one tagged shark was tracked swimming without rest all the way to Hawaii to escape the predator (I don't think they like to be prey). If the whole group scatters when they smell the blood of one of their mates, it may negatively impact breeding and social dynamics to do any hunting.

I think too much is unknown about the species to allow hunting right now.

 

[JKT]

A great white hunt sounds like something that would be fun!

 

[Tom Hawk]

The females grow bigger than males. How could if it is female or pregnant? I would take one. If there were some man eaters in one area, this could be useful

 

[Red Leg]

Better figure out how to control the long liners first. When it comes to non-target species they are the equivalent of oceanic poachers.

 

[sambarhunter]

They actually have more than one young each pregnancy.

 

[Dr Ray]

After seeing the whale and dolphin thread I decided it was time for me to post a topic I've been meaning to post for a while. I want to hear your guys opinions on the possibility of opening a sustainable hunt for the great white shark.

First of all, I am fully understanding of why people want to have great whites totally protected. They are very slow growing, slow breeding apex predators, with one study finding that they take 26 years to reach sexual maturity in males and 33 years in females. An 11 month gestation period is estimated for the species, though very little about their reproduction is known for sure. This slow breeding rate is the only real objection I have to this idea, as, combined with a recently declined (though now recovering in the North Pacific and North Atlantic at least, with the former population estimated at around 2,400 adults) population may make them impossible to harvest sustainably, at least on the commercial fishing scale. Some also argue that cage diving makes more money than fishing, but many regions have been able to balance hunting with ecotourism just fine, as most on this site will attest.

We probably don't have enough knowledge of great white breeding habits to open up a hunt immediately, particularly how much offspring they produce and how many of those survive till maturity, but assuming they produced a few offspring, I don't see why a very limited annual or biannual hunt (like Namibia's five black rhinos a year policy) in somewhere like the North Pacific couldn't be technically sustainable. It'd have to be a literally handful of course, maybe 3-5 sharks a year of a certain age group (no pregnant sharks, etc), but if these were auctioned off as tickets I could see a lot of money being made with each ticket, which could go to the conservation of more imperiled sharks and rays, such as whale sharks, manta rays, hammerheads and sawfish.

What are your opinions, hunters? Could it be time to open up a small hunt of great white sharks? I've attached a picture of late shark hunter Frank Mundus with a great white he caught.

View attachment 165614

In the southern and south eastern waters of Australia there are many great white sharks. Regrettably there a number of great white shark attacks too. We swim in their environment. I don’t believe we should hunt them for many reasons.
Like tigers they are beautiful animals and are not plentiful and are slow to procreate.

 

[Dr Ray]

Mind you in Western Australian waters there have ben numerous attaches but we are invading their territory.
That does not mean we should kill them. I am a hunter and conservationist and there must be a sensible balance.

 

[Tom Hawk]

If it were me, I would use ultrasound, to see if one was pregnant or not. The combination of genetics and age is used in length. A really old one (scarring evident) should be taken, without longline. I would use a bow and/or spear. Rod fishing can cause a long death of one too young. I would only do it where a lot of attacks are.