cpn_aaron
06-17-2007, 09:35 AM
After a shark died from the fight on Thursday I harvested the flesh and extracted the jaws. As I sat watching a movie in my living room and cleaning the jaws I had realized the only place I ever saw directions for cleaning and preserving shark jaws was on an older Australian site dedicated to shark fishing (that has since closed). They did not have a single photo and it made it difficult to follow as they discussed the extraction, filleting, and final mounting/aftercare. So I’ll attempt this right now. A few disclaimers before we start. You should never keep a shark purely for its jaws, but most on this site feel that way already. Also, if you plan to clean and mount them expect it to take you a little over 2 hrs of cleaning to do it properly. After you’ve done one set the next set will go much quicker. Lastly the larger the shark the easier it is to clean the jaws. I never try to extract and clean jaws of any shark smaller than 36” FL. You’ll need to keep your fillet knife razor sharp in order to properly clean it. Last, the meat will begin to dry while you do this so keep a bowl of tap water around to dip the jaws in and keep the flesh moist so you can easily peel it away from the jaws. That being said, here we go……
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkheadforfirstcuts.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkheadforfirstcutssideview.jpg
Above you’ll see the underside view of a spinner that these jaws came from. The dotted line traces along the jaws and this will be where you cut. I’ve attached a side view picture of a Sharpnose that really shows the jaws in situ. A good way to find where you should cut is to trace with a finger hard along the jaws and feel for the space between the cranium and the jaws. Sharks can project themselves outward, so they are loosely in place. Just feel around until you are comfortable you will only cut flesh, not the jaws which are soft when not yet dried.
After you have extracted the jaws you should have a mass of skin and meat. Now you can bury the head and take this home. I usually wrap them up in two plastic bags and throw them in a cooler so they’ll stay moist and pliable when I want to work on them. I have stored some jaws in a fridge wrapped in the bags like this for 3 days and I could still easily work with them as they were still moist, flexible, and most importantly not putrid.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkjawsgumexposure.jpg
This next picture has finished jaws with several arrows denoting the steps we’ll take to clean the jaws. Starting from the extremities of the jaws carefully and slowly peel away the cheek muscle until you expose the wide jaws plates below (see blue arrows). These blue arrows on these plates point out that not all areas of the jaws are smooth. In fact once you remove the exterior meat you’ll have to take very slow and paper thin shaves of meat and membrane several times over this whole area. After the muscle there is a membrane sheath that will expose clean cartilage and ligaments. After removing the sheath the cartilage should be creamy and very smooth. As you clean the extremities it is time to work on freeing the jaws form the gums and skin along the middle fo the jaws. Always start with the front of the jaws because they are most difficult and when properly de-fleshed the back of the jaws comes out much easier. The red solid arrows denote where you should slide the point of your knife. Try to carefully work it against the teeth and jaws and then slide it along the jaws towards the back of the teeth stopping just as you reach the end of the teeth. Do not continue to the hinge joint between the two sets of jaws. You will remove this area later. Do this for both side of each set of jaws. I have only shown the track down one side, but you can do the same for the other two portions of the jaws. Once you have these portions free you can cut the strip of gums and skin away and begin de-fleshing the top and bottom sections of the jaws exposing the rest of the front. The bottom jaws have less flesh are more difficult to remove due to the jaws being almost directly connected to the tough skin. So carefully cut at these areas trying not to damage the jaws or yourself as you have to really push the knife hard and saw a little.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkjawligamentshighlighted.jpg
Now it’s time to clean off the back of the jaws. As with the front part of the jaws start at the extremities. Here it is much smoother so the only thing you need to be careful of is the blue highlighted area. This is a major ligament the shark used for controlling the jaws. If you cut this it is much more difficult to mount the jaws. So when you begin to flay this portion of the jaw do so slowly until you expose the tendon. It will look like white salt water taffy, very shiny and opaque. This tendon is not near the surface. You may encounter a few cut tendons that came from your initial jaw extraction. Look at them and ensure they don’t hold the jaws together. If they don’t hold the jaws together begin cutting them away. I had mentioned that the jaws should be creamy white earlier, but this may not always be the case. If you look at the jaws in the above picture you’ll notice that they have a red spot in the lower left corner. This is actually on the cartilage surface and I scoured the jaw a little trying to remove it thinking it was meat or membrane. This is most likely and old trauma the shark sustained. After a major injury animals get a denser web of vascular structure like all these deep jaw capillaries. So don’t feel like you jaws aren’t properly cleaned if they have a few red marks along the cartilage surface, just make sure they’re smooth.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/psgrowingteethingumswithcutaway.jpg
The next step which takes some care involves cleaning away the flesh on the back of the jaws. This flesh thick but you can carefully remove as if you were skinning any animal from hunting. Grab the flesh, pull it down towards the teeth (see blue arrows) and begin to gently scrap at the point where the flesh attaches to the cartilage. You should get a nice little flap of skin that will stop when you reach the gum. Now just cut the skin away at the gum line as the dotted arrow denotes. Start at one end of the gum line and move to the other. This should leave you with jaws with the gums still hiding the teeth that grow from the jaws. I left the top gums in because a shark this size if difficult to remove the tough gums around the very long and loosely held upper teeth. I didn’t want to damage any of the teeth and give my jaws a gap toothed smile.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/psgrowingteethexposedwithpullsandcu.jpg
I tried to remove the bottom gums because the gum line is larger and the teeth are smaller. Smaller teeth are easier to work around. In larger sharks (5-6’ FL) the gums are much larger and easier to remove around teeth without damaging or loosening any of them. In the picture above take a pair of pliers (needle nose work best for small sharks and begin to make short strong tugs at the jaws following the solid red arrows. Work the gums at all sides and they should come loose and hang out where the gum meets the back of the jawbone. Cut along the gum line following the red dotted arrow from one side to the other.
Now all you should have left is a patch of skin at the hinge that is easily cut away because we removed all the gum and inner jaw tissue that would have made it difficult to remove is gone. Just start at either the back or front and skin it off towards the opposite side of the jaw. With this done you should have completely cleaned jaws. Wash them off in some water and feel them all over to ensure you removed all the flesh and membrane. If any meat remains in the puts along the jaws surface just gently scrape it free with the point of your fillet knife.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/psmountingjaws.jpg
We’ve reached the final stage, mounting. I use a piece of 2X4 for small jaws or a large board of bigger jaws. I gently tap nails on two points near the upper jaws ginge that hold it in place. Now when you set the board at a vertical or horizontal position the jaws will stay open at maximum gape making them look the biggest they can. Place the jaws on a sunny shelf and leave them for 3 days to fully dry and cure. Now you can mount them however you want or if you’re like me put a thin coat of crystal enamel on them to give them a shine and ensure any latent smell will no longer be a problem.
Oof, there we go. With a good set of jaws and some patience you can get a nice set of jaws from your catch to forever remember it. I also like to do this since it’s a neat skill and being a hobbyist carpenter I like working with my hands.
Tight lines and screaming drag fellas.
:fishing:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkheadforfirstcuts.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkheadforfirstcutssideview.jpg
Above you’ll see the underside view of a spinner that these jaws came from. The dotted line traces along the jaws and this will be where you cut. I’ve attached a side view picture of a Sharpnose that really shows the jaws in situ. A good way to find where you should cut is to trace with a finger hard along the jaws and feel for the space between the cranium and the jaws. Sharks can project themselves outward, so they are loosely in place. Just feel around until you are comfortable you will only cut flesh, not the jaws which are soft when not yet dried.
After you have extracted the jaws you should have a mass of skin and meat. Now you can bury the head and take this home. I usually wrap them up in two plastic bags and throw them in a cooler so they’ll stay moist and pliable when I want to work on them. I have stored some jaws in a fridge wrapped in the bags like this for 3 days and I could still easily work with them as they were still moist, flexible, and most importantly not putrid.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkjawsgumexposure.jpg
This next picture has finished jaws with several arrows denoting the steps we’ll take to clean the jaws. Starting from the extremities of the jaws carefully and slowly peel away the cheek muscle until you expose the wide jaws plates below (see blue arrows). These blue arrows on these plates point out that not all areas of the jaws are smooth. In fact once you remove the exterior meat you’ll have to take very slow and paper thin shaves of meat and membrane several times over this whole area. After the muscle there is a membrane sheath that will expose clean cartilage and ligaments. After removing the sheath the cartilage should be creamy and very smooth. As you clean the extremities it is time to work on freeing the jaws form the gums and skin along the middle fo the jaws. Always start with the front of the jaws because they are most difficult and when properly de-fleshed the back of the jaws comes out much easier. The red solid arrows denote where you should slide the point of your knife. Try to carefully work it against the teeth and jaws and then slide it along the jaws towards the back of the teeth stopping just as you reach the end of the teeth. Do not continue to the hinge joint between the two sets of jaws. You will remove this area later. Do this for both side of each set of jaws. I have only shown the track down one side, but you can do the same for the other two portions of the jaws. Once you have these portions free you can cut the strip of gums and skin away and begin de-fleshing the top and bottom sections of the jaws exposing the rest of the front. The bottom jaws have less flesh are more difficult to remove due to the jaws being almost directly connected to the tough skin. So carefully cut at these areas trying not to damage the jaws or yourself as you have to really push the knife hard and saw a little.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/pssharkjawligamentshighlighted.jpg
Now it’s time to clean off the back of the jaws. As with the front part of the jaws start at the extremities. Here it is much smoother so the only thing you need to be careful of is the blue highlighted area. This is a major ligament the shark used for controlling the jaws. If you cut this it is much more difficult to mount the jaws. So when you begin to flay this portion of the jaw do so slowly until you expose the tendon. It will look like white salt water taffy, very shiny and opaque. This tendon is not near the surface. You may encounter a few cut tendons that came from your initial jaw extraction. Look at them and ensure they don’t hold the jaws together. If they don’t hold the jaws together begin cutting them away. I had mentioned that the jaws should be creamy white earlier, but this may not always be the case. If you look at the jaws in the above picture you’ll notice that they have a red spot in the lower left corner. This is actually on the cartilage surface and I scoured the jaw a little trying to remove it thinking it was meat or membrane. This is most likely and old trauma the shark sustained. After a major injury animals get a denser web of vascular structure like all these deep jaw capillaries. So don’t feel like you jaws aren’t properly cleaned if they have a few red marks along the cartilage surface, just make sure they’re smooth.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/psgrowingteethingumswithcutaway.jpg
The next step which takes some care involves cleaning away the flesh on the back of the jaws. This flesh thick but you can carefully remove as if you were skinning any animal from hunting. Grab the flesh, pull it down towards the teeth (see blue arrows) and begin to gently scrap at the point where the flesh attaches to the cartilage. You should get a nice little flap of skin that will stop when you reach the gum. Now just cut the skin away at the gum line as the dotted arrow denotes. Start at one end of the gum line and move to the other. This should leave you with jaws with the gums still hiding the teeth that grow from the jaws. I left the top gums in because a shark this size if difficult to remove the tough gums around the very long and loosely held upper teeth. I didn’t want to damage any of the teeth and give my jaws a gap toothed smile.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/psgrowingteethexposedwithpullsandcu.jpg
I tried to remove the bottom gums because the gum line is larger and the teeth are smaller. Smaller teeth are easier to work around. In larger sharks (5-6’ FL) the gums are much larger and easier to remove around teeth without damaging or loosening any of them. In the picture above take a pair of pliers (needle nose work best for small sharks and begin to make short strong tugs at the jaws following the solid red arrows. Work the gums at all sides and they should come loose and hang out where the gum meets the back of the jawbone. Cut along the gum line following the red dotted arrow from one side to the other.
Now all you should have left is a patch of skin at the hinge that is easily cut away because we removed all the gum and inner jaw tissue that would have made it difficult to remove is gone. Just start at either the back or front and skin it off towards the opposite side of the jaw. With this done you should have completely cleaned jaws. Wash them off in some water and feel them all over to ensure you removed all the flesh and membrane. If any meat remains in the puts along the jaws surface just gently scrape it free with the point of your fillet knife.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/aaronanddelania/fish/psmountingjaws.jpg
We’ve reached the final stage, mounting. I use a piece of 2X4 for small jaws or a large board of bigger jaws. I gently tap nails on two points near the upper jaws ginge that hold it in place. Now when you set the board at a vertical or horizontal position the jaws will stay open at maximum gape making them look the biggest they can. Place the jaws on a sunny shelf and leave them for 3 days to fully dry and cure. Now you can mount them however you want or if you’re like me put a thin coat of crystal enamel on them to give them a shine and ensure any latent smell will no longer be a problem.
Oof, there we go. With a good set of jaws and some patience you can get a nice set of jaws from your catch to forever remember it. I also like to do this since it’s a neat skill and being a hobbyist carpenter I like working with my hands.
Tight lines and screaming drag fellas.
:fishing: