♪relaxing acoustic music♪♪
At the height of summer
when the stripers and blues
have departed for cooler waters
A larger, stronger, toothier
predator
moves within casting range of
the beach.
During a mid July heat wave
on Cape Cod
I join my friend John Malloy
for a night of soaking
big baits with the hope of
hooking a brown shark.
So I'm Dr. Jeff Kneebone
I work at the Anderson Cabot
Center for Ocean Life
at the New England Aquarium
in Boston.
So the study we're doing now on
sandbar sharks.
We're looking at the survival
rate of the sharks
once they're caught and released
from the beach.
So obviously sand bar or brown
shark fishing
has become really popular
on the Cape. 
Over the last couple of years a 
lot of new guys are entering
the fishery.
And we want to make sure that
the fishery is sustainable
both the fisherman 
and the fish.
So it's basically a catch and
release fishery.
They can't be kept if they're
caught by fisherman.
So when fisherman catch from
the beach
They got to bring them up
take the hook out, take a quick
photo.
Whatever they want to do
and they've got to be released.
So we want to know if those
activities
caused the shark to die or 
if they are hearty and
survived those activities.
-Right now we're fishing a mix
of bluefish and eels.
You said you also fish bunker
but you're not.
These are your preferred baits.
Occasionally, yep I would say 
bunker's kind of my
last resort.
Honestly just not a fan of 
durability.
Especially if you are dethawing 
them.
They don't stay on the
hook well.
-So the blues and eels definitey
pull them in.
-Yeah. The blues and the eels
are nice.
Crabs will get in on the blues
a little bit much.
They just give off so much oily
scent
that it's hard to argue with it.
-How often are you checking
your bait.
-I mean every night is a little
different.
Some nights can be real bad
where it's
every five, ten minutes you gota
check and swap them out.
Other times you can get away
with twenty minutes.
-When do you start looking
for the browns up here
on the south side of the Cape.
Um so I'll start looking around
kind of mid to end of June.
Kind of see how the bluefish 
have been doing
have they moved in or
have they kind of moved out.
You know sometimes you get a 
little feel for them.
Bluefish are in nice.
You know first warm water
Then they seem to follow
when the baits trending.
[Jimmy] Well I hope one is here 
and I hope one's hungry. 
-You got that right.
♪eerie ticking music♪♪
[VO Jimmy] By sunset we had
six surf rods
fishing a mix of cut bluefish
and fresh dead eels.
We added glow sticks to our
rods so we can see the bites
even on the pitch black
beach.
But it wasn't even dark
before we had our first bite.
[Jimmy] It's weird man
it's like a slow
[John] Oh there you go
[John] Oh set that thing!
-Oh there we go.
Alright.
-Tight?
-Yep!
-Am I alright to reel this guy
in?
-Yeah yeah you're good.
As I fought the shark
John cleared the other lines
and Jeff prepared the tag.
So this was a dead eel out
there
and that was really kind of a
slow slow take.
-The tag is activated
-He's close I just saw the boil
from him there.
Tell you what man not a 
lot of fight in them.
Alright there he goes there.
It's like he heard me.
-You put that light on him.
So I'll use that on the boat
if they're swimming towards
a buoy or something
-Oh really?
- Even on the shore you
can do that
put the spotlight right where
you don't want them to swim.
And a lot of times they'll swim
the opposite way.
-Alright we're good to go.
[Jimmy] Got him got him.
-Alright.
Pretty good placement too.
-Yeah so John you're saying
that this is
actually on the smaller side
for what you generally see.
Is that right?
Yeah I would say so.
Definitely the smaller
Smaller side of the spectrum but
by no means a small fish.
-No.
-You good?
-Yeah.
[Dr. Jeff] We're using what we
call an exceleration data logger
tag so this is really three
different types of tags in one.
We got a satellite transmitter.
We got a VHF transmitter
and these are basically
gonna allow us to find this
tag 
once it comes off
the shark.
So we put it on the dorsal
fin
and there's a little metal link
that will corrode in seawater
after a specific amount of time.
The tag will then detach
from the shark
float to the surface.
The satellite tag will start 
transitting.
We then have a VHF
antenna
just like you have on
your boat
So this tag sends back
a vhf signal
so when you drive around
to where the satellite tag
is reporting from we start listg
for this VHF tag.
Drive the boat up to
where the tag is
scoop the tag up
and we've got our data back.
So the data that we're really
interested in
are logged by this little device
here in the back.
This is just an accelorameter
So you can think of it as like 
a fit bit.
It collects really fine scale
data
on the animal swimming behavior
while its on the fish.
So we can basically tell
everytime the shark
beats its tail, what depth it's 
swimming at
how fast it's swimming, how much
it's swimming
and that's really gonna tell us
whether or not its alive or dead
So when we get this whole thing
back.
We download this accelerometer.
We can have thousands to tens
of thousands to millions
of data points to work with.
-Send her back in.
Just kind of drag her.
Definitely want to keep
that end away from me.
She goes, she's heading off with
that tag on there.
Jeff said it's gonna release
in about
four days
There she goes man I can't wait
to hear how she makes out.
John man thank you.
-Hey, great fish.
♪ upbeat pop music ♪♪
Truth reels. its a conventional.
Small conventional reels
-Ok. 30lb class probably?
-Yeah I'd say the reels 30lb 
class
the braid is
- 65 ? 50?
- 80. I've got 80lb braid to
to an 80 shock leader
that's about 6 or 7ft long.
-Perfect. Alright.
Fantastic. Well done!
Awesome!  It was so cool to
see the whole tagging process
How'd we do fight wise,
release wise.
Is that typical for what you're 
seeing that might have taken
a little longer. She gave us a
-Yeah that's about typical.
It was 
It was about four minutes
that it was out.
Which is you know
She was in the water
line.
Got the hook out pretty quick.
So that was good and she
swam away.
So that's what we like to see
but the tag will tell
us the truth.
-Yeah.
♪ eery music ♪♪
[Jimmy] Yo!
That looks good.
-Oh!
I had the bait pop out there.
I ain't that hookset.
-Um? 
-Honestly,  a good amount of 
times.
I always leave them out for
a few more minutes
after something like that.
You'd be surprised how
often they come back.
-[Jimmy] Whoa, here we go!
-[Producer] Jimmy's on!
-Jimmy is?
TIght?
-I think this might have been
the one that John just.
So John literally just had a run
off and I was looking at him
as he was holding onto his rod
waiting for it to come back.
Heard my bait runner
going.
Now this was on the chunk of
bluefish
it's a heavier setup here.
And it took a much 
bigger run.
-Little better pull on this one?
Yeah definitely a better
pull. We definitely uh
took a heck of a run as
soon as he felt the hook.
It's funny man I
-As would anyone.
-Similar size maybe. 
-Same size.  
-It doesn't have a tag in it
does it?
- I know right?
Chunky
-Yeah
That's the second shark.
This one hit a bluefish.
Definitely a bigger shark
may not be a lot longer
but it's a lot thicker.
Do a measurement on him?
-[Dr. Jeff] 139 and 55 inches.
-[Jimmy] So 55 inches.
-[Dr. Jeff] 
For this study we're only
looking at short term movements.
So usually when you catch
and release a fish.
It generally, if it's gonna die
it will die within the first
couple days.
So we only want these tags
to stay on the animals
for about one to maybe up to
five or seven days.
So it's really just
a short term
window into their lives
after the release. 
♪suspenseful music ♪♪
So it's a female
-So it's still a juvenile. 
-Yep! She's getting close
to maturity though. Close.
-Good to go?
-Yep! Good to go!
-Alright.
She's ready to go to.
-[John] A little rodeo.
-Two sharks, fantastic!
I feel bad.
-You stole it from me.
- I feel like that was yours.
[VO Jimmy] With two sharks taggd
the night was already a success.
As we debated how long to keep
fishing
A bright light lit up the beach
as a meteor streaked over
Cape Cod.
On The Water producer 
Matt Doucette just happened to
have a camera pointed
in the right direction.
After that we decided to
stick it out a little longer.
And just a few minutes later
another rod loaded up.--
-Yep yep.
-He's on!
[VO] John's shark swam up the
beach
through the maze of rods
and lines
before we had the 
chance to clear them.
-Is this underneath?
-Yeah I was just gonna bring 
that in.
That's the bottle.
Thank you.
-John so what kind of terminal
tackle do you have on this?
This setup right here?
-Ah so for terminal
we got.
Basically a 
number
Should have a number 15 
wire on it.
About 240
-Ok
-That's connected to
I bounce around between 100 to 
130lb
mono for chaffing
shock absorbtion
Uh small
Small section for the weight
to slide around on.
About a foot and a half.
Just straight back to the 
main line.
-[Dr. Jeff] It's a male right?
Yeah its a male.
-Look at that
-I'll go get the pliers
-Oh he got you.
-Someone give me a hand
with the tape?
Jesus!
He is not happy.
Watch your foot there.
-I'm good right here.
-Good.
Can you get it out?
-It's out.
-You got it?
-Yup
-Just kind of hold onto him
so he doesn't get away.
-How many inches on this one?
-Like 56?
Nice and healthy.
-So the males typically are a
little more slender
than the females or is that
just unique to?
Doesn't quite look as defined?
Yeah they're definitely more
slender.
(guys laugh)
[VO Jimmy] The shark kept 
fighting even on the sand.
But Jeff is able to attach
the tag
And the shark swam off strong.
-There he goes.
That was a good one.
♪ gentle music ♪♪
It's been a few months 
since we've been out there
catching brown sharks on
the south side of the Cape.
With Dr. Jeff Kneebone
and John Malloy.
And Jeff has had a chance to
go over some of the data
and Jeff's gonna tell us a litte
bit about what exactly happens
to those sharks after we
caught them.
So you had a number of tags
you were hoping to put out. 
How many did you end up
How many sharks did you 
actually end up tagging?
- We had an ok season.
I wish all the nights were
like yours with multiple fish.
But we ended up with 14
animals.
Most of them were
caught in July.
This season it was my first
doing this research
with our team.
So we were really green.
To start we really kind of
get our bearings
and figure how to do it.
We hada really good July
and we were
optimistic about a good August
but it just didn't materialize.
So we ended up with
fourteen animals.
And we had some decent
retention of tags
on the three sharks that we
tagged that night.
Which was great.
Two of the tags stayed on
for about two and a half
to three days which is how long
we wanted them to stay on.
One of them unfortunately came
off after about
maybe 8-10 hours I would say.
The good news is that all the
sharks survived
and were actively swimming
after release.
Usually what we see in the data
is kind of an escape response.
So when they released
Often times they beat their
tails really fast
and swim away from the
area that they were caught.
But after a little while they 
kind of settled down
to a more normal swimming
behavior.
And we were able to
monitor that swimming
with the tags for that 
entire time of very
very high resolution data.
And it suggests to us
that they were all
they had all survived
and did fairly well
after release.
They seem to be pretty hardy
animals
Capable of surving
fight times
around three to ten minutes
maybe.
And then the sharks that
we handled
on the beach for
unhooking and tagging
That took about I'd say 3 - 7 
minutes.
- So what was the biggest shark
you tagged over the course
of the season.
-The largest one that we got
was a little bit bigger
around 61 inches
fork length
We like seeing those 
big animals
because usually they are
the hardest to handle.
Maybe have the longest fight
times.
And those are the two
main factors that we
think may affect the 
survival of the sharks.
The more big sharks we
can get the better.
In terms of the actual
data from the sharks
that you guys caught
You know it was just great
that they survived.
And they started swimming
what we'd say
probably normally.
-So once you retrieve the
tag
What information are you
getting from it?
-So we get depth every second 
So you can see the vertical
movements of the shark.
We also get some data
about body position.
So pitch for example.
So is the animal swimming up
or swimming down.
We can look at roll which is
if the animal is
kind of on one side
or swimming upright.
And then, most importantly
we get information about tail
beat frequency so 
we can see how the shark
is beating its tail.
Because with this species
they have to beat their tail
and swim in order to move
and breathe.
We'd know that if the 
tail stopped beating
that was probably bad news
for that shark.
And it can mean that
it died.
And the fact that we saw
you know tail beats consistent
throughout the entire time
that the tags were on these
animals
is what  we can use to say
ok they survived.
See at the beginning they're
kind of beating their tail
a little bit more and then 
they settle in
to a more kind of
a rhythmic behavior
you can see the orientation
of the animal here.
And the tail beats, and the roll
their orientation.
You know they kind of
left to right. 
With the roll and pitch up
and down.
And you can see when they are 
moving vertically
it kind of matches that.
So we use all this information
together to get an indication of
whether or not the shark
survived.
Over time we can even use this
information to learn a bit about
their behavior in the sound.
Like when they are more active
when they might be feeding more.
Things of that nature.
-Jeff thanks again for
letting us participate
in the research.
We had a great time.
And it's really interesting
to me.
I know it will be
interesting to our viewers
to learn more about these 
sharks.
And its encouraging to see
that they survived release.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Without fisherman
this project doesn't
exist so.
We really want to capitalize on
the partnerships
with recreational fisherman.
And just promote responsible
fishing practices for
these sharks in this area.
And if we can do that it's a 
win win for everyone.
-Of course man. 
Looking forward to
hearing what happens with your
next tagging season
this year so.
-Thank you so much.
-Thank you.
