If the ocean has a bogeyman, its calling card is biting fish in half before anglers can reel them into the boat.
The phenomenon is called depredation, and it’s at the core of a research project that is asking East Coast anglers to recount the moment something ate their fish off the hook in the Atlantic Ocean.
Sharks are often blamed, but the team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is challenging the lore and suggesting it might be something else.
They believe saltwater anglers have the answers.
“Depredation has been an increasingly common human-wildlife conflict in the South Atlantic and is becoming more common throughout the Mid-Atlantic,” marine social-ecologist Evan Prasky, who is leading the survey, told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
“Unfortunately, the face of depredation is sharks. However, we are also exploring how common it is to see seals, dolphins, birds, and other fish are depredating. … It could be any predator, any fish that is bigger than the fish you have.”
The survey, which can be accessed here, is focused on depredation experiences along the continental shelf from North Carolina to Maine.
Among the questions being asked: Did you see the predator and what was it?
The survey also wants to know how anglers reacted, including whether they felt awe or anger.
“If you are fishing and a 10-to-15-foot shark is eating your bait near the boat, it’s like watching a lion eat a zebra,” Prasky said. “The sharks will slap the side of the boat and fight for it. It’s the greatest show in nature.”
The survey was inspired by Prasky’s own depredation experience. He says he was 13 years old when a predator turned fishing into a three-way battle off the Atlantic coast of Florida.
“You see a kingfish hit the line and jump straight out of the water and it is flying. It is freaking out. And then you see a barracuda jump. You are trying to reel (the kingfish) in as fast as you can and the line goes limp and it’s half a kingfish,” he recalled.
“In the moment before the barracuda gets it, it is like you are fighting with it. It’s a battle between you and the fish that is trying to get the fish you have on the line.”
Among the things researchers are puzzling over is whether depredation is more common or if that is a perception fueled by the increased popularity of saltwater fishing and social media posts of half-eaten fish.
Any saltwater angler age 18 and older who had a “recreational angling experience from North Carolina to Maine” is allowed to participate in the survey.
The study — titled “Assessing recreational angler experiences with depredation along the Northeast continental shelf of the United States” — is being conducted by Prasky, Dr. Andy Danylchuk, and Dr. Ezra Markowitz of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
