1 Jan - 31 Jan 2018

Operation

During January 2018, SMART drumlines were deployed for 21 days at Coffs Harbour, 22 days at Ballina-Lennox Head, 23 days at Evans Head, 24 days at Kiama, 26 days at Forster and 28 days at Ulladulla. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 4:29h to 12:30h. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 8:23h at Ballina-Lennox Head, 8:29h at Coffs Harbour, 9:11h at Evans Head, 9:18h at Forster, 9:27h at Kiama, and 10:15h at Ulladulla.

Total catches

During January 2018 no animals were caught at Evans Head or Forster.

A total of 13 target sharks from the other four locations were caught (Table 1): ten Tiger Sharks (2 males and 8 females), two White Sharks (2 females) and one Bull Shark (1 female).  Most of the Tiger Sharks were caught between Coffs Harbour and Sawtell (Tables 1 and 2).

A total of 10 non-target animals were caught (Table 3), including one Black Ray, one Black Marlin, and eight non-target sharks from four species (4 Dusky Whaler, 1 Shortfin Mako Shark, 2 Smooth Hammerhead and 1 Common Blacktip Shark). All animals were released alive and in good condition, except for the Black Marlin which died.

Comments

When the contractor responded to twenty alerts that had no catch, they found that eleven hooks had no bait, on eight hooks the bait was fully intact, and one hook had 90% of the bait remaining.

One SMART drumline failed to set off any alert at Minnamurra Beach, Minnamurra on 7 January 2018.  When the contractor arrived at the drumline for retrieval at the end of the day, a 1.36 m TL Dusky Shark was found hooked on the line. It was tagged and released immediately.

All other caught animals triggered an alert to the DPI contractors who responded and were at the SMART drumline within an average of 20 minutes.

Table 1: The date and time of capture of species and their sizes (total length in m for sharks, disc width for rays), sex and status during the month of January 2018.

Other tables

• Table 2: Cumulative total of target shark species caught on SMART drumlines since December 2016 (PDF, 156.74 KB)
• Table 3: Cumulative total of non-target species caught on SMART drumlines since December 2016 (PDF, 255.41 KB)