January is a quiet month in coastal New England. The “snow bird” residents have all gone south to their winter homes until spring, much like striped bass and bluefin tuna migrate to and from our waters each year. And even though the beaches are empty and saltwater fishing opportunities are minimal, one thing anglers do have going for them is the stellar pollock fishing in the southern Gulf of Maine. Late last week, Jonny Rego—a kayak and shore fishing guide with RI Kayak Fishing Adventures—was pollock fishing with Captain Cam Faria when he reeled in a triple header that got smashed boat side by a large porbeagle shark.
His GoPro captured the clip below.
Atlantic pollock are close relatives of cod, but many fishermen do not consider them a true groundfish—like cod or haddock—due to their nature to suspend well off the sea floor in massive schools. According to NOAA, juvenile pollock feed on a variety of forage, but mature pollock, which can grow up to 25 pounds, school up and cruise the water column in pursuit of large baitfish like mackerel, herring and squid. The three-man crew of Cam, Jonny and Michael was fishing around 20 miles out when this porbeagle shark caught wind of an easy meal, and seized the opportunity.
Porbeagle sharks are a type of mackerel shark that are closely related to shortfin makos and great whites, but grow to only about 300 pounds. If you saw one underwater, it would be easy to mistake it for a white shark. Porbeagle sharks inhabit cold and temperate waters in the North Atlantic, which makes the waters off of New England the perfect year-round home; that, and the abundance of Atlantic mackerel. Jonny and Cam noted that the pollock were spitting up whole mackerel and herring as they approached the surface, but clearly, pollock were not the only predators following those schools of oily baitfish.
Quickly pulling three ten-pound pollock over the gunnel is easier said than done after fighting them up from 200-foot-plus depths. It’s a good thing Jonny took a brief breather, or his hand could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The way this porbeagle shark came out from beneath the boat poses a hazard to fishermen like Jonny, who was moments from reaching down to grab the leader and hoist his catch aboard.
New England’s inshore waters may be quiet in January, but offshore there are subsurface feeding frenzies between prey, larger prey and an apex predator. The snow birds can have their sunny weather and snook fishing, because I’d much rather watch porbeagle sharks crush pollock in waters close to home.
In a way, the porbeagle shark captures the spirit of the year-round New Englander: a tough animal that bears through cold winters and dwindling forage by any means necessary—even if it means changing up its diet now and then.
Discover Gulf of Maine Pollock Fishing
VIDEO: At The Rail | Pollock Fishing on the American Classic
