It's Jaws 3 for Weymouth Sea Life worker (From Dorset Echo)

It's Jaws 3 for Weymouth Sea Life worker

12:00pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

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DISPLAYS curator Paul Bullimore snapped up the honours on his first scientific shark fishing trip.

Paul, 35, who works at Weymouth Sea Life Park, claimed a hat-trick of successes in the country’s biggest fishing expedition to catch, tag and release sharks in and around the Solway in Scotland.

He reeled in the two biggest sharks and another which was the first of its kind to be caught for a decade in the area.

Paul, of West Mills Road, Dorchester, said: “There were about 180 sharks and rays caught altogether over the two days.

“Fishermen get a reward for feeding back the data from their tags when they catch them, and this will help provide a clearer picture of the status of native sharks and rays, many of which are in serious decline.”

The Scottish Sea Anglers Conservation Network (SSACN) organised the two-day Shark-atag event.

Paul’s biggest catch was a 65lb tope shark but he also hooked the first spurdog in the area for 10 years.

Paul is a keen salmon fisherman but had never fished for sharks before.

He said: “Spurdogs were so common 15 years ago that they were considered pests.

“But last year there wasn’t a single one captured anywhere off south west Scotland.”

The rarity of spurdogs mirrors the alarming decline of such tropical shark species as hammerheads, according to a new report by the Shark Alliance.

Information from previously tagged sharks has helped get some shark breeding areas off the Scottish coast declared protected areas.

The SSACN is hoping people will adopt one of the 300-or-so sharks now on its database.

Paul said: “The object is to raise £25,000 for a future satellite tracking project which will enable us to follow the precise movements of individual sharks over a long period.”

Paul has spent £10 to adopt the giant he reeled in himself, which was immediately dubbed Moby Dick.