snappers and sharks

Brenda with one of the Mangrove Snappers we caught.

On Monday, we took Newt to explore the small white beaches and rocky outcroppings on the northeast shore of Cave Cay.

Brenda has been on a quest to catch edible fish for dinner, having caught over a dozen inedible barracuda trolling from Pandion. This time she started casting a top lure with a light spinning rod, while perched on top of a rocky ledge, and BAM! Schools of Mangrove Snapper went after her lure.

It wasn't long before we had four good sized snapper in the bag, throwing back a few smaller ones. We kept the caught fish in a mesh bag, attached to a rock in a small tidal pool in very shallow water. Within 5 minutes of her first catch, a 3 ft. Nurse shark cruised into the shallows, close enough that Brenda moved the fish away.

After describing this encounter to me, I moved our fish bag to an even shallower location, only to watch as a 5 ft. Blacktip shark glided in to investigate. We were in less than a foot of water, but decided to change from plan A (mesh fish bag that attracts sharks) to plan B (Home Depot bucket on shore).

Grilled snapper dinner that evening was outstanding. Needless to say, we were highly impressed by the shark's ability to sniff our fish while in the bag. Sharks have highly developed olfactory senses that allow them to detect and home in on trace amounts of blood in the water, in addition to the ability to sense electrical impulses and vibrations from a fish in distress. They are well adapted to their environment.

Sharks are beautiful to watch (from a safe distance) and their presence as top predators indicates that the local ecosystem is in good shape. As my friend Bob Hueter from Mote Marine Lab would point out, humans are far more of a threat to sharks (from overfishing) than sharks are to us.