The most important thing to remember, whatever shark species or recipes you intend to use, is to thoroughly clean the shark or dogfish as soon as it is landed to avoid ammonia from the spleen tainting the flesh.

The following series of pictures of sharks was taken at Muriwai Beach near the bombing range by Scott Macindoe.

Click on any of the thumbnail images below to enlarge the shark pics

Walk down to the waters edge and drag the shark up the beach to avoid snapping the trace.

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Take a photo, sharks are very good subjects. Scott Macindoe took this excellent series of pics.

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Take a sharp knife and cut behind the top of the head until the backbone is severed.

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Then turn the knife and run it along just underneath the backbone toward the anal fin.

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At the end of the gut cavity turn the knife downwards to a point just behind the anal fin.

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This cut removes the head and gut cavity, including belly flaps, in one piece. The remainder is called the trunk and is solid meat.

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Thoroughly clean the area under the backbone taking care to remove all blood and the green spleen from the cavity in the backbone.

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Take the trunk to the waters edge and rinse all blood from the gut cavity, then cut off all remaining fins. Store the cleaned trunk on ice in your chilly bin ready for filleting at home.

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Skinning and Filleting Sharks

To fillet the finned trunk slice from the end of the gut cavity to the tail and cut around the backbone to remove it.

Slice the single fillet in half lengthwise along the line of the removed backbone to allow the flesh to lay flat for skinning. After skinning remove any remaining cartilage and cut into cooking sized portions.

Recipes for Shark

I don't eat hammer head shark or spiky dogfish as no matter what shark recipes I have tried I have been unimpressed with the results.

My favorite is mako shark, recipes I have tried for mako are, boiled, steamed, fried and smoked, all were terrific. Mako has a tangy flavor similar to fresh trevally.

True dogfish (no teeth) is certainly next on my list and is perfect for frying, especially for kids as there are no bones.

The absolute best of the recipes for shark I have tried was done with school shark. Mack's Seafoods let me try their smoked school shark strips, it was simply a strips of school shark about the size of a beir stick which was cold smoked in a variety of flavors.

Sweet chilly was my personal favorite, but those who have proper smoke houses could experiment with other proven marinades prior to long smoking the thin strips.

If you have any favorite recipes for shark or a pic or two drop us a line and we will include them here. Send shark pictures and recipes here

Read an article on West Coast shark fishing