I need answers from shark fisherman who know alot about them.?

Question

Me and my husband do alot of shark fishing on Jekyll Island we were told that after you catch a shark it urinates inside itself and it spoils the meat so you have 15 minutes to clean the shark after you catch it. Is this true? Is it really just 15 minutes or is it a diiferent time frame.

Answer 1

thats completely false, you actually have about 1-3 days.  In general clean it asap,  but I've left it for over two days and it turned out fine.....

Answer 2

It depends on the type of shark. Blue sharks do this, and the meat (which isn't too good to start with -- see below) turns to c**p -- you  can actually smell the meat and tell it's no good. (This is why blue sharks aren't sold commercially -- by the time they're taken off the longline or out of the drift net they're long dead and the meat isn't fit for cat food.)

Once a blue shark got itself impaled on both trebles of a Rapala we were trolling for tuna, so we couldn't release it alive. We gutted it immediately, ate it later that day. Not good. Blues aren't worth killing for food.

More edible sharks (threshers and makos) don't do this, or at least not as quickly, though I clean them within an hour or two of catching. However, after cleaning them you should let the meat sit (refrigerated) for a day or so before eating. (I once ate a thresher steak 3 hours after catching the fish, and I had horrible stomach cramps until it passed through my system.)

Bottom line, though, is sharks are apex predators, don't reproduce quickly, and are slow to mature. Don't feel you have to kill (and try to eat) them just because you catch them.