Recently, PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture (PIRSA F and A) identified the need to develop a recreational fishery- and research-supported program that combines new communication strategies and evidence-based CoP development to disseminate information relevant to supporting the management of recreational fisheries for sharks and rays. The priority identified was to improve education and awareness among the recreational fishers in relation to ethical capture, handling and release practices for sharks and rays. Examples of this approach were undertaken in the United States (NOAA), Australia (TAFI and SARDI) and Hawaii (NOAA), where recreational groups have contributed to research activities to assess PRS and use the information to educate other fishers about specific issues related to fisheries for shark species. This proactive approach could be applied to shark and ray species that are priorities for management and taken as bycatch, or targeted by recreational and gamefishing anglers across southern Australia. Correspondence with research colleagues in Victoria and NSW, and fishery stakeholders, identified a need to review, improve and rationalise guidelines for capture, handling and release of sharks and rays, and highlighted data gaps for key species. A field-based quantitative study of the PRS of selected target priority species will be designed during a workshop in 2019, led by SARDI and CSIRO, with support of a linked FRDC-funded project (2018-042) in Victoria (Monash University). The overarching aim is to inform the development of capture, handling and release guidelines and CoPs for sharks and rays that apply to the range of fishing situations across southern Australia. The SARDI and Monash-based projects address region-specific needs and will co-manage the workshop (See suppl. letter). This will include engagement between government agencies, NGOs, and fishers to understand the relative susceptibilities of target species to handling, and expected impacts of gear configuration on PRS.
Research outcomes of the broader project will be coupled with public and fishery feed-back strategies (e.g. expansion of a tagging program) to address the management and perception issues.

The purposes of this project are:
To design and implement a national bycatch report system, facilitated by the FRDC, that meets the current and foreseeable medium term future needs of all Australian fisheries management agencies, including for reporting within jurisdictions and internationally.
- To ensure that this report system is initially feasible using available information, but that it is also scalable to be able to

Over the past decade, increasing awareness or international efforts on the need for protection of certain vulnerable species groups, such as seabirds, marine mammals and turtles, has already resulted in numerous plans of action, fisheries management plans, increased monitoring and development of mitigation measures to reduce impacts on these species. This project would pull together the reporting requirements under all of these individual initiatives to provide guidance on reporting across all Australian fisheries.

There are existing Australian requirements for bycatch and protected species interaction reporting driven by environmental legislation, such as the reporting requirements for species listed or nominated for listing, or requiring export approval, under the Commonwealth EPBC Act. The emphasis on requirements for improved reporting of bycatch and discards under policies such as the revised Commonwealth Bycatch Policy (DAWR 2017), and increased government and public expectation for improved reporting on broader aspects of fisheries environmental responsibility, has increased the need for regular reporting on bycatch.

Most regional fisheries management organisations, including those of which Australia is a member or cooperating party (the Commission for Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna - CCSBT, the West and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission - WCPFC, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation - SPRFMO and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission - IOTC) have requirements to mitigate risks to specified protected species groups, and to report on interactions with such species. Increasingly, other governments (such as the United States and European Union) are also requiring fish imports to meet requirements relating to risk reduction for bycatch and protected species.