1-31 December 2018

Operation

During December 2018, 20 SMART drumlines were deployed for 23 days at Ballina-Lennox Head and 15 SMART drumlines for 20 days at Evans Head. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 3:13h to 12:08. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 9:05h at Ballina-Lennox Head and 8:34h at Evans Head.

Catches

During December 2018, four target sharks were caught (Table 1): three White Sharks (1 male and 2 female) and one male Tiger Shark from Ballina-Lennox Head. Four non-target animals including two Smooth Hammerhead Sharks (male and female) and two female Greynurse Sharks were caught (Table 1). All animals were released alive.

Comments

When the contractor responded to eleven alerts that had no catch, they found that five hooks had no bait and six hooks had the bait fully intact.

All caught animals triggered an alert to the DPI contractors who responded and were at the SMART drumline within an average of 23 minutes.

Table 1: The date and time of capture of species and their sizes (total length in m), sex, and status during the month of December 2018.