Captain Fisher Culbreth of Capture Charters cautiously unhooks a sandbar shark using a de-hooking tool. Sharks must be handled with care as they are brought to the boat. Photo by Mike Marsh.

Shark! The very word invokes images of ferocious predators showing their teeth in threatening grimaces as they circle hapless prey. Many fishermen curse them because they eat baits intended for other game fish and attack hooked game fish with gruesome results. Many tournament-winning fish, from marlin to king mackerel to flounder have been attacked by a shark before being played to the boat and taken to the weigh-in station.

There are dozens of species of sharks swimming in North Carolina's coastal waters. Small dogfish and large sand tiger sharks prowl inshore waters, the surf and nearshore wrecks and reefs. Deeper waters attract every shark imaginable, including the huge "requiem" sharks -- purported man-eaters like the great hammerhead, tiger, bull, blue and great white sharks.

As recent as two decades ago, there were shark tournaments in coastal towns. However, overfishing, especially by commercial interests, has caused a decline in coastal shark populations to the point that there are restrictions on shark landings, including recreational landings.

Fishery managers are getting a handle on shark populations and the restrictions are helping some shark populations stabilize. A few are increasing, but some are still in trouble. Nearly all sharks have low reproductive rates and take longer than most marine species to reach maturity. The problem for sharks is not that people want to catch the sharks because the sharks eat people; the sharks' problem is that people like to eat sharks.

Large sharks get the most attention, but few anglers attempt to catch them and the big sharks hooked incidentally usually cut off or break the line. The biggest species attain weights of hundreds of pounds and most anglers would rather forgo catching them anyway.

Still, a few dedicated fishermen pursue big sharks. Shortfin makos are occasionally hooked by big-game anglers trolling for marlin. The mako may be the fastest shark in the world, thrilling an angler with spectacular leaps and streaking runs. Also called the "blue pointer," makos can achieve weights of over 1,000 pounds. Large sharks like the mako are extremely dangerous and have even been known to attack boats when hooked. Most anglers who hook them simply cut the line rather than try to land one and that's the case with other large sharks.

Anglers never forget tangling with threshers and spinners, which can also jump. A spinner seldom weighs over 100 pounds, but a thresher shark can weigh several hundred pounds.

Hammerheads are probably the most common large shark anglers encounter in North Carolina waters. The first saltwater big-game fish I ever landed was a 7-foot hammerhead. It was landed at Kure Beach fishing pier in 1971, a time when the species was more common. The fish struck a live spot fished with a king mackerel trolley rig. The big fish stripped 350 yards of line from a conventional spool reel on the first run and took over an hour to land. The largest hammerhead I've ever seen followed a hooked dolphin to the boat about 25 miles offshore of Carolina Beach two summers ago. The shark was certainly over 1,000 pounds in weight, bigger than the world's record. On the light gear I was using to land the dolphin, there was no hope of successfully fighting the monster shark, so I tightened the drag and horsed the dolphin to the boat just ahead of the shark's attack.