Operation
During October 2019, 20 SMART drumlines were deployed for 22 days at Ballina-Lennox Head and 15 SMART drumlines for 27 days at Evans Head. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 5:12h to 11:52h. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 9:35h at Ballina-Lennox Head and 8:49h at Evans Head.
Catch
During October 2019, 23 target sharks were caught (Table 1): 19 White Sharks (11 White Sharks at Ballina-Lennox and 8 White Sharks at Evans Head) and 4 Tiger Sharks at Ballina-Lennox Head. Twelve non-target animals were caught, including five Smooth Hammerhead Sharks, four Greynurse Sharks and one Dusky Whaler, Mako Shark and Common Blacktip Shark (Table 1). All animals were released alive.
Comments
When the contractors responded to twelve alerts that had no catch, they found that nine hooks had no bait remaining, two hooks had 20%, and one hook had 100% of the bait remaining.
Two SMART drumlines that had both caught a Greynurse Shark failed to set off alerts at Evans Head on 1st and 9th October 2019. One shark was discovered when the contractor was travelling past the gear when attending another alert, and the other when the contractor arrived at the drumline for retrieval at the end of the day. Both sharks were tagged and released immediately (Table 1).
All other sharks triggered an alert to the DPI contractors who responded and were at the SMART drumline within an average of 21 minutes.
Table 1: The date and time of capture of species and their sizes (total length for sharks), sex, and status during the month of October 2019.
Beach name | Date | Time | Species | Size (TL) and sex | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ballina to Lennox Head | |||||
Lennox Head Beach | 14/10/2019 18/10/2019 21/10/2019 21/10/2019 27/10/2019 31/10/2019 | 13:00 10:55 11:21 12:42 08:53 14:44 | Tiger Shark Tiger Shark White Shark White Shark Mako Shark White Shark | 2.0; Male 2.0; Female 2.8; Female 2.3; Male 2.0; unknown 3.3; Female | Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive |
Lennox Headland | 06/10/2019 | 07:41 | White Shark | 2.5; Male | Alive |
Boulders Beach | 11/10/2019 23/10/2019 | 08:33 11:20 | Smooth Hammerhead Smooth Hammerhead | 1.6; Female 2.0; Male | Alive Alive |
Sharpes Beach | 12/10/2019 | 14:36 | Tiger Shark | 2.2; Female | Alive |
Angels Beach | 11/10/2019 28/10/2019 | 12:57 12:19 | White Shark White Shark | 2.5; Female 2.0; Male | Alive Alive |
Shelly Beach | 11/10/2019 15/10/2019 15/10/2019 | 09:20 07:32 09:26 | White Shark Smooth hammerhead Smooth Hammerhead | 3.0; Male 1.7; Male 1.6, Male | Alive Alive Alive |
Lighthouse Beach | 02/10/2019 | 10:12 | White Shark | 3.0; unknown | Alive |
South Ballina Beach | 04/10/2019 04/10/2019 15/10/2019 28/10/2019 28/10/2019 | 08:12 13:13 12:11 13:14 15:10 | White Shark White Shark Smooth Hammerhead Tiger Shark White Shark | 2.2; Female 2.0; Male 1.6; Female 3.0; Female 3.6; Female | Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive |
Evans Head | |||||
Airforce Beach | 01/10/2019 18/10/2019 | 09:42 07:23 | Dusky Whaler White Shark | 1.9; Female 2.8; Male | Alive Alive |
Main Beach | 01/10/2019 01/10/2019 05/10/2019 07/10/2019 09/10/2019 11/10/2019 14/10/2019 18/10/2019 22/10/2019 | 09:42 11:36* 07:42 16:28 13:13* 10:07 10:06 10:05 12:43 | White Shark Greynurse Shark White Shark Greynurse Shark Greynurse Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark Greynurse Shark | 1.9; Male 2.4; Male 1.7; Female 2.7; Female 2.7; Female 2.9; Male 2.8; Female 2.5; Female 2.5; Female | Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive |
Shark Bay | 21/10/2019 | 7:25 | White Shark | 2.3; Female | Alive |
Joggly Point | 01/10/2019 09/10/2019 | 13:03 11:31 | White Shark Common Blacktip Shark | 2.4; Female 2.0; Male | Alive Alive |
*No trigger. Time is indicative of when the contractor was travelling past the gear when attending other alerts or arrived to pick up the gear at the end of the day