Porbeagle Lamna nasus
Max. Size: 10 foot fork length, 750 lbs. Water temp 32 -64 degrees
The temperature range of 40-50 degrees ideal for fishing porbeagles.
IGFA record - 507 lbs.......Maine State record - 548 lbs
A 675 lb porbeagle was caught off an oil rig in western Norway
There are 2 Lamna species . Lamna nasus,
and Lamna ditropis. In New England, and across the Atlantic to the
British Isles and Europe, and on into the Mediterranean, we have the
Porbeagle, Lamna nasus. In the southern hemisphere the porbeagle, Lamna
nasus is also found in the southern areas of South America, Africa and
Australia. Preferring cooler waters, the "Beagles" avoid the warm water
areas around the equator. A Canadian longliner Capt. told a friend of mine who was
onboard, that they have actually longlined porbeagles in 32 deg. water. That is about 4
degs. above the freezing point of saltwater. The preferred set for a longliner
targeting porbeagles is 40- 50 deg. water. |
|
|
Only two sharks in the world have
the short ridge on the upper part of the lower tail lobe. They are the porbeagle Lamna
nasus and the salmon shark Lamna ditropis.
The salmon shark, Lamna ditropis, sometimes referred to as the
Pacific porbeagle is on our West Coast and Alaska.
The salmon shark differs from the porbeagle in some external characteristics; it lacks the
white area on the back of the dorsal, has a shorter snout, and the salmon shark has dark
spots all over the white underside including under the pectoral fins. |
 |
 |
Porbeagle Stats.
| Fork length |
pounds |
| 9 Feet |
550 lbs. |
| 8-1/2 |
475 |
| 8 feet |
400 |
| 7-1/2 |
320 lbs. |
| 7 feet |
260 |
| 6-1/2 |
210 |
| 6 feet |
165 |
| 5-1/2 |
130 lbs. |
|
Porbeagles are definitely a cooler water species. They
have been caught by longliners in 32 deg. water, which is only 4 degs.
above the freezing point of saltwater. Brrrrr.
The IGFA has recently opened up the fly rod category to include porbeagles. |
| Some things to remember about porbeagles: they
look like fat makos - Porbeagles have a white patch on the bottom back of the dorsal fin -(Some
other species like the Oceanic whitetip have white on the top of
the dorsal fid) porbeagles can tolerate cold water (32 deg.)- are harder to bait and hook than makos; and may
come to the boat in a group. In the British Isles the porbeagle is a
much sought after big game fish. The porbeagle is a little known shark here in the
United States. It is confined mainly to the New England area, with a few getting
into New York and New Jersey waters.
Knowledgeable fishermen lovingly call porbeagles; “Fakos”
since it is so easy to pass them off as makos. |
|
 |
This Mass. Bay
porbeagle has been tagged and will be released.
Notice the white patch on the back of the dorsal.
Also notice the second dorsal; on a porbeagle it will be directly
over or slightly behind the anal fin.
A mako's second dorsal would be slightly ahead and a white's would be much farther
ahead of the anal fin.
|
 |
Above, a porbeagle has attacked a cod
being brought up from the bottom off New Hampshire on June 7, 2009, and is
photographed by Mark.
Notice the white at the back bottom of the dorsal, a porbeagle
characteristic.
Here is Mark's e- mail to me:
"I am sending along some photos taken last
weekend 8 miles east of Hampton beach, my friend says its a mako, I
say a porbeagle..
Thank you for you help."
Mark
|
 |
Mass. State record porbeagle 482-1/2
lbs.
Caught by Jamie and Matt Grimes
off Nantucket on Sept. 5, 2009 |
Porbeagle. What a strange name.
| According to the book, The Natural History
of Sharks, the word porbeagle first occurred in a 1758 book,
The Natural History of Cornwall. Porbeagle is a
combination of the words porpoise and beagle. |
|
| In August and September porbeagles spend time in the coastal
cooler waters of Maine. There are not many people who know about the porbeagle, and
that the population of “Beagles” increases again in Mass. Bay when the water
cools in October through December. Most sport fishing boats are hauled
out in mid October when the marinas close, so no one is sport fishing for them when they
are back in the area. In December you can fish for them within a few miles of
the shore. |
 |
With half the harbor iced in, I have seen them caught in
gill nets in late December, just a few miles east of my hometown, Scituate Mass. The
gill netters don't target porbeagles, but the “beagles” get wrapped in the gill
nets when they go in after a struggling fish caught in the net.
Most of the IGFA world record porbeagles are caught in England and
Scotland. Those records can be challenged in New England
waters.
The IGFA record is 507 lbs.
The Maine state record is 548 lbs.
|
The porbeagles were overfished in the 1960s.
The porbeagles were decimated by the Norwegians
fishing in the Northwest Atlantic, and Canadian waters during the 1960s. In 1961 the
Norwegians started a longlining operation for porbeagles , about 1900 tons were landed
that year. By 1964 it peaked at 9400 tons. Then it collapsed to less than
1,000 tons in 1969. (The Faeroe Islanders also fished for porbeagles during that
period, and long thereafter but the Faeroe catch is insignificant compared to the
Norwegian effort. ) The graph below shows how unrestricted longlining of a targeted
species can decimate the stock in less than a decade. Take a look at the
graph from 1961 through 1967. |
|
| Notice the black area , bottom right of the
chart, which starts around 1990. That is the Canadian commercial fishing
interests targeting porbeagles. Lets hope the Canadians manage the stock to sustainable
levels. (Chart from Dept. Fisheries and Oceans, Dartmouth Nova Scotia, Canada ) |
 |
| In the United States a porbeagle is the Rodney Dangerfield of
sharks. It doesn't get any respect. It is overshadowed by its famous Lamnidae
family relatives, the high leaping, boat attacking, cockpit wrecking shortfin mako, Isurus
oxyrinchus, and the white, Carcharodon carcharias, of "JAWS"
fame.” The porbeagles preference for cool water keeps it away from the
swimming beaches, therefore it's encounters with people are very rare, so the
porbeagle, Lamna nasus, doesn't get any sensational press. Basically,
if the water is warm enough for you to be swimming, it is too warm for the
porbeagle. Although a fast swimmer, the
porbeagles are not a continuous jumper like some of the hooked makos. But certainly
they have the speed to clear the water, and do so on some occasions. Unlike the
solitary makos, porbeagles may arrive at the boat in a group of 4 or 5. But
don't expect to catch them all; they can be very finicky. Porbeagles want live food,
more so than a mako or a blue. You can easily get a mako or a blue to take a
bluefish, or mackerel fillet, but sometimes a porbeagle will ignore the bait, even when
they have other competing sharks swimming with them. In my opinion the
porbeagle is our most difficult shark to hook.
Porbeagle populations in Mass. Bay and Maine increase in June and
early July. A few hang around in the summer months but during the summer stay
in the cooler water below the top of the thermocline, which is down about 40-50 feet in
the summer. Struggling cod being reeled up from the bottom during late June and July
produce a lot of porbeagle hookups. In June and early July, before the surface
water warms up, porbeagles regularly swim above the top of the thermocline and grab tuna
fishermen's trolled mackerel or squid trains. Many porbeagles caught then by
tuna and cod fishermen will be incorrectly identified as a mako. |
I
received this e- mail on July 6th 2001.
A couple of weeks ago, we were fishing for stripers out on
Stellwagen on the
xxxxx out of Brant Rock, when we saw a dorsal fin up ahead of the boat.
Next thing you know, one rod gets a hit, then another rod goes immediately
afterward. After a minute or so, the line on the first rod breaks, but we
still had this shark on the other rod.
We fought with this creature for almost an hour, six of us taking turns at
for about five to ten minutes apiece, when finally, when I was holding the
rod, with all the wire out, all the mono was out and we were down to the
backing, the knot came undone. we lost our catch with two umbrella rigs in
his mouth.
Capt xxxx believes we had a porbeagle and was surprised we kept him on that
long. If we had managed to bring it in, it most likely would have been the
end of our striper trip.
I enjoyed the shark info on your page and wanted to relay the story to you
because hooking that porbeagle is an experience that neither myself or my
fishing buddies will soon forget.
|
|
Scotland holds the IGFA all tackle record with a 507 lb.
porbeagle. In Dec., 1999 a Canadian longliner targeting porbeagles, took several
over 500 lbs. as part of their catch. The two heaviest weighed 611 and 613 pounds.
Some of that group of porbeagles make it into our New England waters. The
Maine state record porbeagle weighed in at 548 lbs. That's
heavier than the IGFA 507 lb. world record set in Scotland in
1993. A lucky New
Englander could set a new IGFA porbeagle record, if it is caught under
IGFA rules. |
|
Below, on the left, a New
England porbeagle, Lamna nasus. White patch on dorsal- No
spots on white underside.
Angler is Capt. Steve James, Scituate Mass. |
Below, on the right-a salmon shark, Lamna
ditropis. It lacks a white patch on the back of the dorsal, and has dark spots
on its white underside. It also has a shorter snout than our East coast version. |
 |
 |
A porbeagle gets a
little press coverage in Nova Scotia.
This was e- mailed to me from Arlene P. in N.S.
This event happened on Tues. Dec. 5th 2000
You know the water was darn cold then, but just right for a porbeagle.
Nova Scotia Diver Attacked by shark...
Daniel MacDonald was diving in the dark ,frigid waters of the Bay of Fundy,
hunting for crustaceans,when he felt a heavy thump on his side.
The veteran sea urchin diver turned to find himself face to face with a
3m long shark which immediately latched on to MacDonalds fishing bag loaded
with the prickly delicacies.
For 15 panic filled minutes ,MacDonald struggled 16m below the surface
with the angry shark that began dragging him out to sea.
"when he took off, it locked my fingers in the bag and I was bouncing off
the side of the shark."
MacDonald shook the bag and after a couple of times the shark darted
off. He said the shark was about the length of a car..then opened its
jaws,releasing the bag,and circled back for another attack.
"When he stopped, I laid on my back ...and swam to shore backwards and he
kept hovering around me , darting back and forth at me. I was just thinking
..get to shore."
MacDonald who was wearing a drysuit and gloves during the Tuesday attack
,said he kept the shark at bay by repeatedly hitting it off with his
fishing bag. It eventually swam off in the frigid water.
MacDonald ,who was unharmed except for some 'stiff fingers' quickly swam
about 60 m to shore where the captain of his boat picked him up.
"Well he was kinda scared , that's for sure"said the skipper of the
fishing boat. "He took the rest of the day off"
MacDonald telephoned a marine biologist in Halifax, who told him the
shark was probably a porbeagle, a normally harmless cold water fish common
to the area that feeds on mackeral, herring and cod.
Porbeagles, also known as mackeral sharks weigh 75 kg on average and grow
about 2.5m .They are dark blue to black with a white tip on one of their
fins, a pointed snout and small, smooth edged narrow teeth.
Word of MacDonalds attack spread quickly through the diving
community. Several scientists and divers said they have never heard of a shark
attacking a diver and that incidents of sharks approaching divers are
extremely uncommon in this region.
"You have to go out and spend alot of time and money to find a shark up
here. They are out there, but they don't as a rule come close to shore. This is
an unusual event.
|
 |
This is the range of the porbeagle, Lama nasus.
Notice they are not found within 20 degs. of the equator. They just thrive in cooler
water.
Even if some areas, like the Mediterranean have warmer surface water,
porbeagles can stay down in the cooler
water below.
|
Return to home page
|
