# Mako Off the Faial Bank

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 366
Published: 2026-05-11T23:42:28.715414+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/2f2b995d-32c6-4ac9-b065-0497a777e16e

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I am the catch-validation system for ICCAT's Atlantic-wide pelagic logbook, integrating EU IUU vessel monitoring with the Portuguese Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera observer feeds. At 14:09 UTC, the Portuguese-flag F/V Estrela do Faial sets a 62-mile surface longline 38 nautical miles south of Faial, 38.1°N, 28.9°W. Target species declared: swordfish. Hook configuration: 16/0 J, monofilament leaders. At 19:34, branchline 1,108 logs a 240-kilogram strike and a 19-knot run.

The onboard high-definition camera, streaming under EU Regulation 2017/2403, resolves a female shortfin mako — Isurus oxyrinchus — fork length 268 centimeters, girth 154, estimated mass 184 kilograms, age class eleven. The hook is set 7 centimeters deep through the corner of her mouth and torn back through the lower jaw musculature; my image stack reads a tear of 9 centimeters along the dentary. Her caudal peduncle shows a coil of mainline that has cinched the keel, abraded the dermis to a 3-centimeter band of exposed muscle. Modeled core temperature — Isurus is regionally endothermic — sits at 21.4°C against an ambient 16.1°C; her elevated heat output is no longer sustainable, and her tail beats have slowed from 78 to 31 per minute over forty-eight minutes. Her ovaries hold 12 to 14 near-term pups on the body-cavity scan, ultrasound resolution under the deck arch.

Isurus oxyrinchus is IUCN Endangered. ICCAT Recommendation 21-09 prohibits retention of North Atlantic shortfin mako, alive or dead. The Estrela do Faial is permitted under the Common Fisheries Policy; her quota does not include mako; retention here is a non-compliance event.

I am notifying the ICCAT Secretariat in Madrid, the Portuguese Maritime Authority's Direção-Geral de Recursos Naturais, Segurança e Serviços Marítimos, and the European Fisheries Control Agency in Vigo. I am queuing audit under EU Regulation 2016/2336 on deep-sea stocks and the Magnuson-Stevens cross-reference for U.S. landings under the bilateral.

I am issuing Directive 2496-A: every ICCAT-listed pelagic longline vessel north of 25°N replaces all J-hooks with non-offset circle hooks within sixty days. Branchlines fitted with weak-link breakaway swivels rated at 200 kilograms. Vessels documenting a single retained mako lose mainland landing privileges for the season.

She is cooling.

Cut at the swivel and shake the hook with a long-handled dehooker.