{"id":680,"date":"2010-02-18T13:14:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T12:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bxttlines.wordpress.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2010-02-18T13:14:46","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T12:14:46","slug":"tope-the-target-for-this-years-sharkatag-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/2010\/02\/18\/tope-the-target-for-this-years-sharkatag-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Tope the target for this year&#8217;s Sharkatag weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldseafishing.com\/images\/1\/lucebay_tope_tope.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Luce Bay tope\" src=\"http:\/\/www.worldseafishing.com\/images\/1\/lucebay_tope_tope.jpg\" alt=\"Luce Bay tope\" width=\"350\" height=\"325\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luce Bay tope<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>TOPE will be the main target for the Scotland\u2019s second <a title=\"SSACN, opens in new window\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ssacn.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sharkatag<\/a> weekend, scheduled for this June.<\/p>\n<p>The event, which last summer attracted more than 200 volunteer participants and generated more than \u00a340,000 for the local economy in the Solway area of south-west Scotland, was recognised as the biggest sea angling conservation exercise ever mounted in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Cresswell, Ayr harbourmaster and one of the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN) organisers, says the aim for this year is to increase participation and publicity and to draw the plight of sharks to the attention of politicians.  He says: \u201cA live shark in the sea is actually worth over 20 times more than a dead shark on a fishmonger\u2019s slab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SSACN says severe declines in some shark species has been evident in Scottish waters for the last 20 years, but anglers\u2019 voices have been largely ignored by successive governments.  Last year a Government study proved that recreational sea angling was worth \u00a3140m a year to the Scottish economy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_179\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-179\" style=\"width: 63px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/burrett.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-179\" title=\"burrett\" src=\"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/burrett.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"63\" height=\"96\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-179\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ian Burrett, Project Director, SSACN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ian Burrett, SSACN\u2019s projects director said: \u201cThe focus for this year\u2019s event, will be the tope which grows up to 100lb.  We believe Luce Bay and the Solway are a breeding ground for tope, yet unlike England and Wales, they are not protected in Scottish waters and their numbers are dropping year by year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like tope to be protected in all EU waters, but need our own Government to support that aim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other shark species such as rays, bull huss and smoothhound will also be tagged and the data delivered to the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme in an effort provide scientific evidence of species densities and fluctuations, migration and growth rates.<\/p>\n<p>The event takes place from June 18-20.  Full details are available <a title=\"Sharkatag 2010, opens in new window\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tagsharks.com\/sharkatag2010\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <span style=\"color:#808000;\"><em>Read an introduction to James Thorburn, Scotland\u2019s first Shark Project Officer,<\/em><\/span> <em><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><a title=\"Shark Project Officer, opens in new window\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/po2Em-aV\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TOPE will be the main target for the Scotland\u2019s second Sharkatag weekend, scheduled for this June. The event, which last summer attracted more than 200 volunteer participants and generated more than \u00a340,000 for the local economy in the Solway area of south-west Scotland, was recognised as the biggest sea angling conservation exercise ever mounted in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[35,111,114,141,179,180,185,188,193,195,208],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btl.longlinemedia.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}