Although a punk rock shark can be pretty amazing to think about, most sharks are better off without the extra jewelry.
According to a new study by the University of Hawaii, nearly a third of the tiger sharks that are hooked during fishing activities will retain the tackle once they are returned to being able to swim freely, whether it was because of biting through the line or being cutoff at the hook by fisherman. Researchers found that millions of sharks are hooked each year and that approximately one-third of those have a hook embedded in their jaw. Depending on the hook material, it can remain an average of seven years and can even remain for the entire lifetime of the shark.
“That can have profound consequences for those animals. It can injure or even perhaps kill them because they’re unable to feed properly after these interactions,” UH marine biology associate professor Carl Meyer said.
The researchers, who published their findings in the latest issue of Fisheries Research, studied 55 specimen of tiger shark caught in the waters around French Polynesia over the course of eight years.
According to the study, hook retention is a widespread issue that likely affects millions of shark species, including blue sharks, silky sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, mako sharks and thresher sharks. Many of the sharks in the study were found to have multiple hooks embedded in or around their mouths.
Hooks made from carbon steel corroded and fell out after approximately two and half years. Stainless steel hooks, which are quickly becoming illegal in both commercial and recreational fishing application, can last up to a decade or more.
“If fisheries were to switch from using stainless hooks to carbon steel hooks then the impact on the sharks would be reduced simply because those hooks would fall out much more quickly,” Meyer