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Information to support management options for upper-slope gulper sharks

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Authors:

Wilson DT, Patterson HM, Summerson R, and Hobsbawn PI

Project Number:

2008/065

Objectives:

  • Review the success of international management arrangements to address the sustainability of fisheries catches involving similar upper-slope low productivity shark species.
  • Consider the historical identification of Harrisson's dogfish including catch statistics and scientific surveys.
  • Investigate and improve estimates on the nature and extent of interactions with Harrissons dogfish and similar upper-slope gulper sharks in all sectors of Australias SESSF.
  • Provide an analysis, with supporting rationale, for alternative management options for reducing the ecological risk to Harrissons dogfish and similar upper-slope gulper sharks in Australias Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF).

Outcomes achieved to date:

  • This report results from a request by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) to the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS), to meet additional provisions made to the SESSF declaration of an approved wildlife trade operation (WTO) made by the Minister for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts in December 2008. Specifically, the variation to the WTO requires AFMA to investigate and report back to the DEWHA on the extent and nature of Harrisons dogfish interactions in all sectors of the SESSF, and provide alternative management options.
  • The DEWHA will use the report during its assessment of upper-slope gulper sharks as threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The assessment is due to be completed by 30 September 2010.
  • AFMA and CSIRO were consulted extensively during the preparation of the report and industry was given the opportunity to comment through AFMAs Harrissons dogfish workshop held in Melbourne on 24 March 2009.
  • This report also considered the recommendations of the AFMA Chondrichthyan Technical Working Group (CTWG) regarding methods to reduce bycatch of gulper sharks identified as high risk in the SESSF through AFMAs ecological risk assessment process. This expert panel consisted of scientific experts and representatives from AFMA, BRS, DEWHA, industry and NGOs.
  • Alternative management options provided in the report are discussed in terms of their likely success in reducing the ecological risk to upper-slope gulper sharks from fishing gears (e.g. longline and trawl), taking into account current international management arrangements, the quality of historical identifications of gulper sharks in catch statistics and scientific surveys, and where possible, impacts on industry.

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Last reviewed: 30 Sep 2009
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