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.