Sharks in Lake Macquarie killed for ‘thrills’

HAMMERHEAD sharks are being targeted by Lake Macquarie fishermen seeking food and thrills, and a washed-up shark is thought to have been hooked first.

A marine biologist said a hammerhead carcass found on Saturday at Myuna Bay, where another hammerhead beached and died last month, had probably been caught.

‘‘My guess would be that these sharks were killed and possibly dumped,’’ Department of Primary Industries shark biologist Vic Peddemors said.

‘‘I think it’s an incidental mortality rather than a natural mortality.’’

Some lake anglers are targeting hammerheads for their size and prestige.

Several videos of hammerheads in the lake have popped up on YouTube and one shows two men on a boat hooking a shark, reeling it in and letting it go.

Fishe rmans Warehouse, Marks Point, owner Jason Nunn said there was general consensus hammerhead numbers were increasing along with bull and whaler sharks.

‘‘Some [fishers] go out and hook them and let them go, some are taken home for food or trophies and some are released,’’ he said.

He said even a released shark could ingest a hook and die and wash up later.

He said it would be interesting to know if the hammerhead that beached in July had a hook in its stomach.

‘‘It could have been a fish that was released after the fight,’’ Mr Nunn said yesterday.

One YouTube clip shows a hammerhead lurking in what the poster claims is the nearby Eraring Power Station’s outlet.

The station sucks in water to cool itself through inlets designed to divert fish and return them to Myuna Bay. Surrounding water can reach 35degrees.

Dr Peddemors said water that warm would not harm a shark and there was probably no link between the station and the dead hammerheads.

BY TIM CONNELL, PORT STEPHENS REPORTER

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/sharks-in-lake-macquarie-killed-for-thrills/2259199.aspx