Bans on shark fishing from the shoreline are spreading along America's coasts — and anglers are no longer just grumbling about them. They are heading to court.
The flashpoint is South Carolina. Surf-fishing charter operator Gregory Haskins, who runs Catching with Greg, and the nonprofit Shoreline Shark Conservation have filed suit against Horry County over a long-running prohibition on land-based shark fishing that extends a mile out from the county's beaches and piers.
"It's unconstitutional because Article 1, Section 25 of our (state) Constitution guarantees my right to fish, and then these counties are confusing everything by regulating something that the state already regulates," Haskins said.
His complaint leans on a point of state law: South Carolina treats fish as "state property," which the plaintiffs say caps how far a county can go when the state already licenses anglers and regulates gear. Haskins argues the ordinance has bled charter income and locked both groups out of tagging work they do for NOAA's Cooperative Shark Tagging Program within the county. Horry County, saying it had yet to be served, declined to comment on the case.
South Carolina is not alone. California's Department of Fish and Wildlife shut shore- and pier-based fishing on June 25 from Pigeon Point down to the Mexican border, extending 1,000 yards out and outlawing oversized hooks and wire leaders inside the zone. The closure lasts 180 days and can be extended twice by 90 days. Regulators tied it to El Niño-driven movement of juvenile white sharks into California's nearshore shallows.
"We're really worried that if someone catches a large shark and is fighting it with this heavy metal leader, that the shark could wrap itself around a person," said department spokesman John Ugoretz.
Much of this echoes Massachusetts, which tightened shore rules near Cape Cod by capping wire leaders at 18 inches, banning hooks larger than 5/8 of an inch and outlawing drone-assisted fishing statewide. Jared Silva of the state's Division of Marine Fisheries said only the heavy gear used to land great whites is affected.
"The guys that are fishing lighter gear on and around Cape Cod, they will be totally unaffected," Silva said, pointing to a social-media driver behind the crackdown: "There is a large contingent of anglers on social media that are looking for that viral video of them shark fishing, particularly for white sharks."
The divide is clear. To regulators, these are safety measures meant to keep hooked, thrashing sharks clear of packed swimming beaches. To anglers, they are overreach — an attack on a lawful pursuit and, for Haskins, on a conservation program now barred from the water. Whichever way the South Carolina suit lands, it could set the terms for whether local governments can go further than their own state — a question that stretches far beyond Horry County.
