Russ Vetter, Leg III SHARK CRUISE. Sharks are tough animals and nothing about the gear that is used to catch and study them can be small or delicate. Still our heartfelt goal is to catch them as quickly and painlessly as possible, tag them, take biological samples and send them on their way. In a previous entry, I discussed the purpose of our present experiment comparing the advantages of “circle” verses “J” hooks in terms of causing injury to the shark. However that begs the question, how to get the hook back out of the animal?

Hook removal requires getting up close and personal with the business end of the shark… sort of shark dentistry. On Leg III, Suzy Kohin is in charge of pulling the shark into the cradle and I am in charge of restraining the head and hook removal.  In the first photo, you can see a perfectly placed circle hook in the jaw of a large blue shark. The second photo shows the large bolt cutters used to cut the shank of the hardened steel hook. In the third photo, you can see that the hook has been removed and the jaw of the blue shark has little tissue damage. By testing circle hooks, we are attempting to limit hook swallowing and the additional problems of gill or stomach damage. However, the sharks do not thank us for hook removal, and any inattention to the job at hand will get you bit in an instant. ABOARD THE DAVID STARR JORDAN, Off San Nicolas Island, California.