NSW North Coast Shark Meshing Trial Report

Report period: 8 Jan 2017 – 7 Feb 2017

During the second month of the NSW north coast meshing trial, nets were deployed for totals of 27–31 days at five beaches and each checked between 27 and 41 times (Table 1). The contractors are required to check the mesh nets twice a day, but if the weather or bar conditions prevent safe access, then fewer checks are made.

Table 1. The number of days that mesh nets were deployed at each beach, and the number of times each mesh net was checked between Jan 8, 2017 and Feb 7, 2017.
Beach	Number of days nets were deployed	Number of times nets were checked
Seven Mile, Lennox Head	27	27
Sharpes, Ballina	27	27
Shelly, Ballina	27	28
Lighthouse, Ballina	27	28
Main, Evans Head	31	41

During the second month, 72 individuals across 10 species were caught in the mesh nets:

56% were released
44% were deceased and had tissue samples retained for analyses (Table 2).
of the three target shark species (White, Tiger and Bull sharks), one White Shark was caught (deceased) in the mesh net at Sharpes Beach and was retained for analysis.

Table 2. The number of each species caught in the mesh nets that were alive and released or dead at each beach.
Beach	Species	Number alive	Number dead
Seven Mile, Lennox Head	Australian Cownose Ray	1	0
	Loggerhead Turtle	1	0
	Pygmy Devilray	0	1
	Whitespotted Guitarfish	1	0
Sharpes, Ballina	Australian Cownose Ray	1	0
	Great Hammerhead Shark	0	2
	White Shark	0	1
	Green Turtle	0	1
	Pygmy Devilray	2	3
Shelly, Ballina	Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin	0	1
	Australian Cownose Ray	3	2
	Great Hammerhead Shark	0	1
	Pygmy Devilray	0	1
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	3	0
Lighthouse, Ballina	Australian Cownose Ray	3	2
	Great Hammerhead Shark	0	1
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	2	0
Main, Evans Head	Australian Cownose Ray	17	7
	Great Hammerhead Shark	0	3
	Loggerhead Turtle	0	1
	Pygmy Devilray	0	1
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	5	1
	Spinner Shark	1	0
TOTAL		40	32