The International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks) was developed in 1999 in response to global concerns about the status of shark stocks. The Australian Government ratified the IPOA-Sharks in 2004 and developed a national Shark-Plan with an overall objective to ensure the conservation and management of sharks and their long-term sustainable use in Australia.

Queensland fisheries legislation requires sustainable harvest of fish resources and their optimal use. Reliable and robust assessments of the status of fished resources are central to achieving such outcomes. Currently in Queensland, sharks are managed as a single stock with uniform management arrangements throughout the state. The lack of information on stock structure, however, means that the appropriate scale of management is not known. As well, fishers have no guidelines to encourage investment and long-term involvement in a fishery that supplies lucrative overseas markets. These management- and fisher-unfriendly circumstances must be viewed in the context of dramatic increases in catches of sharks on the Queensland east coast and the potentially high vulnerability of sharks to fishing pressure. Such a scenario highlights the urgent need for information on the stock structure of exploited shark species.