Second NSW North Coast Shark Meshing Trial Report

Report period: 23 November – 30 November 2017

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 first publication.

Nets were installed at Lennox Head, Sharpes, Shelly, Lighthouse and Evans Head beaches on 23 November 2017.

During November 2017 nets were deployed for seven days at five beaches and each checked 4-5 times (Table 1). Contractors and trained DPI observers check the nets once every 12-48 hours, depending on when weather or bar conditions allow safe access to the nets.

Table 1. The number of days that nets were deployed at each beach, and the number of times nets were checked between 23 and 30 November, 2017.
Method	Beach	Number of days net deployed	Number of times net checked
Nets	Seven Mile, Lennox Head	7	4
	Sharpes, Ballina	7	4
	Shelly, Ballina	7	4
	Lighthouse, Ballina	7	5
	Main, Evans Head	7	4

During the seven fishing days in November a total of 18 individuals from six species were caught in the nets (Table 2).

10 (56%) were released alive.
8 (44%) were deceased and retained for analyses.
Of the three target shark species (White, Tiger and Bull sharks), one Bull Shark was caught in the net at Lighthouse Beach, and was relocated and released alive.
‘Listed Fauna’ caught in November were six Pygmy Devilrays and two Great Hammerhead.

Table 2. The numbers 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	Pygmy Devilray	0	5
	Great Hammerhead	0	2
Sharpes, Ballina	-	-	-
Shelly, Ballina	-	-	-
Lighthouse, Ballina	Bull Shark	1	0
	Australian Cownose Ray	1	0
	Whitespotted Eagle Ray	1	0
	Pygmy Devilray	1	0
Main, Evans Head	Common Blacktip Shark	0	1
	Australian Cownose Ray	6	0
TOTAL		10	8

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