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Report a Shark, Skate or Ray in BC

Report a Shark, Skate or Ray in BC
If you catch a shark or skate while fishing or see one washed up on a beach, we want to hear from you! Here are some steps you can take quickly and with little equipment. Note if a beached shark is alive or shows any responsiveness - do NOT touch it. If you happen to catch the shark while fishing please take a photo and release the animal alive.

Essential information to record

  • Record date, time and location including GPS coordinates (if possible)
  • Length from tip of nose to tip of tail (use your foot length if no equipment is available)
  • Behaviour - if alive what was it doing
  • Sex – males have claspers
  • Any marks, injuries or fishing gear that suggests how the animal may have died

Photograph details to take

  • Whole animal, preferably the SIDE view (include hand or foot for scale)
  • Underside of the head and under the pectoral fins
  • Underside of the pelvic fins (verifies shark’s sex)
  • Teeth, close-up (verifies species identification)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

An adventure with a Salmon Shark

Here is a very nice story and we commend Ken and Kim for their shark-saving efforts! You can see in the video that one has to be very careful though--the teeth are very sharp and the small jaws powerful. That didn't stop anyone in this rescue though! Running exhausted seabirds over to the calm inlet side is common practice for us--I can't believe I have never thought of doing this with Salmon Sharks! Great idea and one I will employ with caution if I ever get the chance. It would be cool to know where she(I didn't see any claspers) went after her rescue from stranding. Thank you Ken and Kim.

Westerly News
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009

Dear Editor,

We visited your lovely town of Tofino October 15 to 17 and had an encounter with a shark. We were told it was a salmon shark, and rare for the area. We found him washed up on Chesterman Beach, exhausted, and sure to die.

Even the surfers tried to carry him out past the waves, but to no luck. So my hubby picked him up, put him in our trunk and we zipped over to the inlet side and tried to revive him.

After about 15 minutes, he came around. He swam around in the little bay, then headed out to the currents of the inlet, and hopefully back out to the ocean.

Just thought we may share this experience with you.

Ken and Kim Foreman,

Westbank, B.C.

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