Disturbing Catch: Half-Eaten Fish Caught by Connecticut Anglers Spotlights Widespread Issues in Fishing
On Tuesday, Aug. 15, Connecticut Fish and Wildlife called for photos of half-eaten fish on Facebook, and fishing pros and hobbyists shared images of their partial catches.
“Yesterday, while reeling in this striped bass, these anglers had an unexpected visitor who proceeded to chomp most of this Striped Bass in one bite,” the CFW wrote in its post. “We hear of this happening more and more over the past couple of years.”
Trevor Berwick, a charter captain from Coventry, Connecticut, confirmed to Fox News Digital that sharks of all sizes have been biting reeled-in fish.
According to Berwick, who works at Real Cast Charters, a sport fishing charter company in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the most common culprits are brown sharks, sandbar sharks, and tiger sharks.
Berwick said the sharks seem to be active in the southern parts of the Long Island Sound, and on occasion, great white sharks have been seen in the area, too.
Berwick claims that clients have been reeling in half-eaten fish in the last three years of his 12-year charter fishing career.
“We deal with them on a daily basis now. It’s just kind of the way of the day,” Berwick said. “[The sharks are] grabbing the back of fish, they’re chasing fish, they’re grabbing baits, and it’s just been getting kind of out of control.”
“I don’t know if it’s a bait thing or if it’s the temperature or whatever the case can be, but [the sharks have] just started to kind of move in from last year,” said Berwick.
Fox News Digital contacted the Connecticut Fish and Wildlife Department for comment.
Anglers’ Stories of Sharks and Prey Interaction
Several other anglers responded to the CFW with photographs of sharks and half-eaten fish.
Elliot Thomas of Kensington, Connecticut, reported that a shark in Long Island Sound recently bit into his hooked catch on Wednesday, Aug. 2, in East Lyme.
Jake Roczniak of East Haddam, Connecticut, was night fishing on the eastern side of Long Island Sound in August 2022 when a shark ate a chunk out of his striped bass.
“I was fighting [with the bass], and when it got near the side of the boat, a shark bit my striper in half,” Roczniak told Fox News Digital.
“I didn’t get a great look at the shark, but it was either a small white shark or a brown shark,” he continued. “Most likely a smaller white shark, as I’ve seen them in the area before this happened days before and after.”
Roczniak said he’d noticed an increase in shark activity in the sound at the beginning of August each year.
Dale Chandler, of Griswoldville, Connecticut, saw a shark bite spoil a catch while fishing in the Long Island Sound from Clinton Harbor late last summer.
Anglers from other states, including those from the northeastern and southeastern coasts, responded to the CFW’s call for photos.
Schipman has landed large Atlantic red snapper that has been half-eaten by the time he reels them in on several occasions.
“Sharks have become a real problem here for recreational fishermen,” he said. “The limit on red snapper is two per person, per trip, and there are some days we can’t catch a limit because we lose 20 or more to sharks.”
When Steve Schipman of Pensacola, Florida, goes fishing on the Gulf Coast, he says sharks steal and bite hooked fish.
He told Fox News Digital that bull sharks are typically the offenders, but that porpoises can also be involved.
Source: Yahoo! Life
