Amid increasing reports of fishermen encountering brown sharks in the Connecticut River, experts say it is a mix of both good and bad news.<\/p>\n
Dr. Eric Schultz , a University of Connecticut professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said that he has talked with a number of fisherman who are reporting seeing an increasing number of brown sharks, also known as sandbar sharks, in Long Island Sound and near the mouth of the Connecticut River. He said the sightings are not alarming, but that they signal a change in behavior and possibly point to warming water in the Long Island Sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people are observing is most likely a learned evolutionary behavior,\u201d said Schultz. \u201cI\u2019m in Cape Cod right now and we have increasing sightings of Great White sharks. It\u2019s not that there is more of them, it\u2019s that they learned where to get an easy meal. There are a lot of seals around the Cape and the sharks hang out around the coast to get an easy seal dinner.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe same is probably true with what is happening at the mouth of the Connecticut River,\u201d he said. \u201cThe anglers are reporting that the sharks are learning that boats mean an easy meal. The sharks have learned that they can get an easy meal from bait on a hook or fish that are hooked and being reeled in. While these anglers have reported it\u2019s an \u2018inconvenience,\u2019 it\u2019s really just a matter of shark depredation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shark depredation is when a shark eats or damages a hooked fish before an angler can pull it onto the boat, he said. Sharks often can learn behaviors that make it easier to find food and will usually steal fish off a hook. In Florida, hammerhead sharks are notorious for stealing big fish like tarpon from anglers, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepredation is really an issue in a lot of places around the world,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cWhat is happening with the brown sharks is a biological rule. Most organisms seek to minimize the time and effort required to get a meal, so there is very strong natural selection for employing that behavior. Once an animal learns how to do that, they will start to do that again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sandbar shark is one of the largest shark species found in coastal waters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a>. True to their name, sandbar sharks prefer sandy or muddy areas in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world. They can grow up to be 8 feet and weigh between 100 and 200 pounds.<\/p>\n
Healthy adults can live up to 20 years, according to the NOAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may look intimidating, but there is no alarm to humans,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cThere is some understandable level of annoyance from fisherman, but seeing these sharks in higher numbers is a good thing. Ultimately it signals a healthy ecosystem as predators are an important part of that ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese sharks are employing a biological behavior and going to a specific spot because that\u2019s where people are fishing and they are getting rewarded,\u201d Schultz added. \u201cMy guess is a lot of these fisherman can probably move to another part of the river and get away from these sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n
A small number of vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America are permitted to fish for sandbar sharks as part of a shark research fishery. Brown sharks are considered endangered and are a protected species in Connecticut, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot kill a brown shark, it is illegal,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cThe sharks are listed as overfished and endangered, but overfishing is not occurring right now because there is no active fishing for these sharks currently. They have historically been fished before, but it is no longer legal for anglers to keep this species. Many sharks have low reproductive rates, so if a shark does recover, it can take a long time. It can take decades for a shark population to rebound.\u201d<\/p>\n
While seeing more of the endangered sharks may ultimately signal a positive sign for the brown shark population, Schultz said that it could also signal a more ominous problem, warming water in the Long Island Sound. Brown sharks are drawn to warm summer water and abundant prey like striped bass, he said. Historically, brown sharks didn\u2019t come up as far north in the Long Island Sound, as they preferred warmer water in the south where their prey was, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is true that one of the main drivers of the appearance of these sharks is the water is getting warmer,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing some fish become much more abundant that we didn\u2019t see before. Black sea bass and a fish called the Long Island porgie are now becoming abundant in the Sound, fish that we\u2019re now seeing further north as temperatures rise in the Sound due to climate change. So that is an important part of this story, as these appearances are symptoms of a worrying phenomenon called climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Save the Sound<\/a>, water temperature is rising four times faster in the Long Island Sound than the ocean. Warmer water holds less oxygen that aquatic organisms depend on and can change the Long Island Sound\u2019s ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it is good to see more sightings of an endangered shark species, there is concern about the sharks being spotted further north,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cThis is something we are actively looking at and monitoring for what warmer water means for the future of the Sound.\u201d<\/p>\n