1-31 January 2019

Operation

During January 2019, 20 SMART drumlines were deployed for 30 days at Ballina-Lennox Head and 15 SMART drumlines for 29 days at Evans Head. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 5:00h to 12:38. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 9:52h at Ballina-Lennox Head and 8:49h at Evans Head.

Catches

During January 2019, four target sharks were caught (Table 1): one male White Shark and three Tiger Sharks (one male and two female). Three non-target animals including one female Smooth Hammerhead Shark, one male Greynurse Shark and one female Black Marlin were caught (Table 1).  All animals were released alive.

Comments

When the contractor responded to fourteen alerts that had no catch, they found that six hooks had no bait, two had 50% 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.