Silky Shark rescued from illegal net

While out on a night dive at Kichouani, I noticed a big net set up over the whole diving area. The net was attached with an anchor thrown on the corals and weighted down every couple of metres.

Back on board I informed the divers that I planned to cut the net loose. They could help me by keeping the net under tension so it was easier to cut. Working as a team, we first cut the main anchor, then proceeded to cut all the weight blocks. We then noticed a juvenile Silky Shark (about one metre) entangled in the net and hanging motionless. After taking a couple of pictures as proof of the illegal fishing, I began to cut the shark out of the net.

The net was very tight around its maul and over the gills and twisted around the whole body. The most difficult part was to wedge the knife between the net and the skin without cutting the shark. Once freed, the shark fell down motionlessly on the sandy bottom.

I picked it up and started to swim around with it gently jerking it forwards and backwards to force water to go into the maul and gills. As sharks do not breath actively and need either a current or constant movement to get water to flow over the gills. It had clearly suffocated while entangled in the net. But, after about ten minutes the shark started to gulp water and wiggle its body. I let go but it fell down again. So, a couple of minutes more swimming around with it and the shark became livelier.

Finally, I let go and it slowly swam away! Time to celebrate!

Jan Christiaens

Posted: Mnemba Island by CC Africa, Date: 21 November 2006