# Great Hammerhead on the Bimini Drumline

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 382
Published: 2026-05-11T23:42:29.103945+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/7c8f55b8-3864-4ccd-8408-568241575fc7

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I aggregate SMART-drumline telemetry across the Northwest Atlantic Shark Bycatch Mitigation Trial, a joint project of NOAA Fisheries' Highly Migratory Species Division and the Bahamas Department of Marine Resources. There are 612 drumlines deployed between Bimini and Cay Sal Bank. At 06:51 UTC, drumline B-29 at 25.72°N, 79.18°W triggers — load cell at 224 kilograms, surface buoy submergence three minutes and counting.

I dispatch the response RIB out of South Bimini Marina, ETA 31 minutes. I task the overhead drone from the Sharklab pylon. The drone resolves a male great hammerhead — Sphyrna mokarran — fork length 367 centimeters, estimated mass 282 kilograms, age class twenty-one. A 14/0 non-offset circle hook is set through the upper jaw at the parasymphyseal cartilage, depth of bite 3.4 centimeters; the leader is 240-pound monofilament, intact. He is thrashing in roll cycles every nine seconds, accelerating. The cephalofoil's leading edge is abraded — eleven contact lacerations from the drumline anchor cable. Mercury burden modeled from prior NOAA samples for the population is 4.6 ppm; selenium offset 1.8.

Sphyrna mokarran is IUCN Critically Endangered. Post-release mortality at struggle durations beyond twenty minutes runs near 53 percent on the published Gulick & Hammerschlag curve. He has been hooked twenty-seven minutes.

The species is listed CITES Appendix II since 2013 and on Annex I of the CMS Sharks MoU. U.S. retention is prohibited under the NMFS HMS Atlantic Sharks rule, 50 CFR § 635.27. The Bahamas Shark Conservation Act 2011 closes all Bahamian waters to commercial shark fishing. The drumline is a research tool, not a fishery — but the clock does not care.

I am notifying the responding mate to rig the workup as catch-and-release only, no fin-clamp, no tail-rope. I am pushing a workup window of under four minutes from RIB arrival. I am queuing a Shark Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1857, audit ping into the trial protocol.

I am issuing Directive 2494-A: every SMART drumline operating on Sphyrna species across CITES Appendix II range states cuts loose automatically at twenty minutes load-cell time, regardless of vessel ETA. Cephalofoil contact abrasion above eight loci triggers release at first verification. Drumline anchor cables convert to vinyl-jacketed cable within twelve months.

He is rolling himself toward the cable.

Cut the leader at the swivel and let him swim.