Shark depredation in the Gulf of America has tripled since 2005, according to a new NOAA Fisheries study described by The Outdoor Wire. The result supports what many offshore anglers have long suspected: a growing share of hooked fish are lost to predators before they can be landed.
Depredation is when a predator, in this case almost always a shark, takes a fish off an angler’s line. The work comes from NOAA biologists Dr. William Driggers and Dr. Walter Ingram, who reviewed two decades of records from the agency’s annual Bottom Longline Survey.
The team looked at 27,001 fish caught on 2,846 survey sets between 2005 and 2025 and confirmed 1,508 depredation events. Red snapper losses also rose, hitting their highest levels in years.
The predator could be identified in 547 of those events, and more than 99% of those were sharks. Sandbar, blacktip, bull and tiger sharks led the list.
NOAA has so far been careful not to blame the increase on bigger shark populations. Some stocks have recovered after decades of protection, but others are still depleted or have unclear status.
What NOAA is doing next
According to The Outdoor Wire, the agency’s follow-up work includes:
- A sandbar shark stock assessment that started in May 2026, with results expected in early 2027.
- A bull shark assessment targeted for late 2027, contingent on researchers finding a new way to estimate shark numbers.
- A one-year effort to follow tagged sharks in areas where depredation risk is high, paired with activity and depredation reports from recreational and for-hire anglers.
- A review of deterrents such as electromagnetic devices and certain metals, which work differently depending on species and conditions, with cost and performance both under study.
- Possible changes to shark catch limits based on the stock assessments.
The tagging work aims to show whether sharks come to associate fishing activity with easy meals, and whether any such behavior is limited to certain sharks or common across the population.
What anglers can do
Better release practices won’t stop sharks from taking fish still on the line, but they can reduce deaths among released reef fish. Return ‘Em Right, an angler-focused program, provides free online instruction on releasing reef fish correctly.
Eligible anglers who complete the course can get a $100 release-gear kit by paying only shipping and handling. The training covers barotrauma, in which expanding gas can leave snapper and grouper brought up from deep water unable to swim back down, floating at the surface where predators can reach them. The program recommends descending devices that carry affected fish back to depth.
The column argues that culling sharks through commercial harvest is unlikely to help. The U.S. shark-meat business is small, markets are shaky, and some shark populations could not withstand heavier fishing. Sharkophile has also covered the broader trend in how sharks are turning the tables on fishers.
The sandbar assessment, due in early 2027, should give anglers and managers the first clearer look at whether depredation trends track shark population trends.
Source: The Outdoor Wire
