Saltwater Boat Angling — December 2017

O

nce again claims are

being made about the

size of ‘record’ sharks, by

various individuals, and

WWIII has broken out

between the camps of followers of

the skippers involved.

‘Barry’s sh was much bigger than

that.’ - ‘David’s sh was nowhere

near that size.’ - ‘They used a broken,

rusty tape measure.’ - ‘They held

it nearer to the camera to make

it look bigger.’

All the usual accusations that surface

when a sh is caught that may beat

someone else’s record or personal best.

The truth of the matter is that there is

no accurate method of determining

of a shark’s weight except by tapping

it on the head and stringing it up on

scales and we really don’t want to go

back to that do we!

DODGY PRACTICES

Even in the days when this happened,

cheating was not unknown. Rumours

were rife about sh, lead weights and

buckets of water being poured down

the throats of sharks prior to weighing.

This wasn’t just where record sh

were concerned, a couple of mackerel

might be stued down the throat to

nudge the shark just over the

qualifying weight of the SACGB.

To be fair, I have never seen any direct

evidence of this personally, because

most anglers and skippers are

basically honest people who value

the integrity of the sport, but there

was never any shortage of stories

describing these practices.

STANDARD REFERENCE

The only way to compare sh is to have

a standard method of reference and,

to some extent, this has already been

achieved with the majority of anglers

now using the LxGxG/800 formula:

length x girth x girth divided by 800

= lbs weight. (Length is nose to fork of

tail.) Does this give an accurate

calculation of weight? No, it doesn’t,

but it doesn’t really matter as long as

everyone uses the same standard

reference. Perhaps we should stop

calling the calculations lbs, maybe

just ‘units’ or something else.

The Shark Angling Club of Great

Britain has gone some way towards

standardizing the recording of shark

sizes by introducing the length plus

girth measurements for trophy and

notable sh claims, they have also

Measuring a blue shark

Time to shed

the pounds?

David Turner

tries to give

some clarity to

the controversy

over estimating

shark sizes

60 Saltwater Boat Angling

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