Following many expressions of public concern regarding the potential for finfish/tuna aquaculture to attract sharks to coastal areas, at both regional development and individual site applications, PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture identified the need for an understanding of the factors that may explain associations between sharks and finfish/tuna aquaculture activities. This view was reinforced at meetings of the AAC (including a presentation from the PI on 22 Feb 2013), who are a legislated body under the Aquaculture Act 2001, advising the State Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries on matters relating to aquaculture development. As a consequence, this project was listed as a priority area for investment by the SAFRAB.

A previous FRDC funded workshop (2002/040) identified a need to understand factors that may explain interactions between pelagic sharks and aquaculture activities. Some of the findings highlighted during this workshop are now considered to be outdated. For example, anecdotal accounts from finfish farmers and commercial fishers suggest that white sharks sightings have increased in the past decade in Spencer Gulf and this may have implications for the frequency of interactions with the fishing and aquaculture industry. The provision of data to further inform the public’s current perception of the aquaculture industry represents a key priority in South Australia’s Fisheries and Aquaculture R&D Strategy. During the development of this project the need for this research was discussed with key industry representatives.
This proposal addresses key objectives of the Draft White Shark Recovery Plan, 2010 (2c, 7a, 9a and 9b).

In recent years in South Australia there has been increased interest in the bronze whaler (Carcharinus brachyurus) and the dusky whaler (C. obscurus) shark species. The increased fishery focus has resulted in part from a redirection of effort from school and gummy sharks, whilst the development of sea cage aquaculture in inshore areas of Spencer Gulf has potentially resulted in increased mortality rates for whaler sharks.

The current understanding of the fishery and population biology of these species is too poor to know whether the populations are sustainable under these regimes of increased mortality. One problem for understanding the fishery biology is that comprehensive information on catch is not being collected. This is because both species of sharks are taken in a diversity of fisheries as either targeted or non-targeted catch, and only some information on targeted catch is being reported. Furthermore, this targeted catch and effort information is maintained in different places. Consequently, the first need for assessing the vulnerability of the populations of dusky and bronze whaler sharks in South Australia is to collate the existing catch and effort information. Once this has been achieved the data can be analysed and used in a risk analysis to assess, as far as possible, the vulnerability of dusky and bronze whaler sharks to over-exploitation.

Australia is a signatory to the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks) which was ratified by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Committee of Fisheries during February 1999. As a signatory, Australia is obliged to develop a National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (NPOA-Sharks).

AFFA has established a Shark Advisory Group to prepare a Shark Assessment Report and to develop the Australian NPOA-Sharks. The Group includes representatives from all key government and non-government stakeholder groups, including shark specialists. Progress on development of the Report and Australia's NPOA-Sharks was reported to the FAO Committee of Fisheries during February 2001.

In addition, through the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, all Australian Commonwealth and State fisheries ministers have endorsed the National Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, which includes sharks and other chondrichthyans. The Commonwealth has recently released its bycatch policy, which builds on the endorsed National Policy on Fisheries Bycatch and commits the Commonwealth to developing a Bycatch Action Plan for each major Commonwealth fishery by 31 March 2001.

Australia is well placed to meet its international and national obligations for conservation and management of its chondrichthyan species. The major shark fisheries of southern Australia, Western Australia and northern Australia are well documented and are data rich. However, biproduct and bycatch of these species are not well documented.

In south-eastern Australia, most chondrichthyans are taken by the Southern Shark Fishery (SSF) and South East Fishery (SEF). Data on byproduct and bycatch have been collected from the SSF and are currently being analysed (FRDC Project 99/103). In the SEF, data are collected by Integrated Scientific Monitoring Program, but no attempt has been made to analyse the chondrichthyan data.

The present project proposal will not be complete in time to provide results for the first draft of the Australian Shark Assessment Report and NPOA-Sharks. Similarly, it will not be complete in time to prepare Bycatch Action Plans for the SEF (Trawl Sector) and the SSF and SEF (Non-trawl Sector) but the project outputs will be vital inputs to subsequent drafts.

Outputs from the project will assist Environment Australia with two recent initiatives taken under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. One relates to the requirement for an Environment Impact Assessment for each Commonwealth managed fishery. The other initiative is the Conservation Overview and Action Plan for Australian Threatened and Potentially Threatened Marine and Estuarine Fishes.