Second NSW North Coast Shark Meshing Trial

Report period: 1 February – 28 February 2018

Note: All data are preliminary and subject to quality assurance checks and confirmation of species identities from photos and necropsies. Asterisks will be used to denote data that have been corrected since their first publication.

During February 2018, nets were deployed for 23 fishing days¹ at five beaches and each checked 12 or 13 times (Table 1). Contractors and trained DPI observers check the nets once every 12–48 hours — depending on weather conditions.

Table 1. The number of days that nets were deployed at each beach, and the number of times nets were checked between 1 and 28 February, 2018.
Method	Beach	Number of days net deployed	Number of times net checked
Nets	Seven Mile, Lennox Head	23	12
	Sharpes, Ballina	23	12
	Shelly, Ballina	23	12
	Lighthouse, Ballina	23	12
	Main, Evans Head	23	13

¹ The Management Plan for the trial defines a ‘fishing day’ as 24 hours that the nets are in the water.

During the 23 fishing days in February, a total of 26 individuals from eight species were caught in the nets (Table 2).

16 (62%) were released alive.
10 (38%) were deceased and retained for analyses.
‘Listed Fauna’ caught in February were two Great Hammerheads, two Manta Rays, one Pygmy Devilray, and one Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin.

Table 2: The numbers of each species caught in the nets that were alive and released, or dead and retained at each beach.
Beach	Species	Number alive	Number dead
Seven Mile, Lennox Head	Great Hammerhead	0	1
	Manta Ray	1	0
	Pygmy Devilray	0	1
Sharpes, Ballina	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	1	0
	Whitespotted Guitarfish	1	0
Shelly, Ballina	Bull Shark	0	1
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	3	1
	Whitespotted Guitarfish	0	1
Lighthouse, Ballina	Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin	0	1
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	6	0
Main, Evans Head	Great Hammerhead	0	1
	Spinner Shark	0	1
	Manta Ray	1	0
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	2	2
	Whitespotted Guitarfish	1	0
TOTAL		16	10

Since the trial began on 23 November 2017, each net has been fished for a total of 88 days (not consecutively), catching 110 animals from 15 species and with an overall survival of 65% (Table 3).

Table 3: The species caught in the nets and the total numbers that were alive and released, or dead and retained at each beach since the second trial began on 23 November, 2017.
	Main Beach, Evans Head		Lighthouse Beach, Ballina		Shelly Beach, Ballina		Sharpes Beach, Ballina		Seven Mile Beach, Lennox Head		Total
Species	Alive	Dead	Alive	Dead	Alive	Dead	Alive	Dead	Alive	Dead	Alive	Dead
Australian Cownose Ray	27	9	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	31	9
Bull Shark	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1
Common Blacktip Shark	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	3
Common Dolphin	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Great Hammerhead	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	6
Green Turtle	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Greynurse Shark	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Hawksbill Turtle	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Loggerhead Turtle	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Manta Ray	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	0
Pygmy Devilray	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	9	2	10
Spinner Shark	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Whitespotted Eagle Ray	4	2	8	0	8	1	3	0	3	0	26	3
Whitespotted Guitarfish	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	3	1
TOTAL	37	18	13	2	8	3	5	3	8	13	71	39