1 Aug - 31 Aug 2017 - SharkSmart

In addition to Ballina-Lennox Head and Evans Head (which have been operating since 8 December 2016), two new locations, Coffs Harbour and Forster each with ten SMART drumlines deployed daily, started on 14 August 2017.

During the month of August, SMART drumlines were deployed for totals of 21, 28, 12, and 16 days at Ballina-Lennox Head, Evans Head, Coffs Harbour and Forster, respectively. The average number of hours that SMART drumlines were deployed at each location was similar (8:21h to 9:01h), but varied daily depending on environmental conditions (4:53h to 10:51h).

Total catches

A total of 30 target sharks were caught in August; five White Sharks at Ballina-Lennox Head, 9 White Sharks at Evans Head, and 16, White Sharks at Forster (11 males and 19 females). No target sharks were caught at Coffs Harbour (Table 1).

Eight non-target species were caught; four Greynurse Sharks (two each at Ballina-Lennox Head and Evans Head), three Dusky Whaler Sharks at Coffs Harbour, and one unidentified Thresher Shark (Table 1).

Six alerts had no catch with the bait fully intact on four hooks and either 25% or no bait remaining on the other two hook when the contractor arrived.

Table 1. The date and time of capture of species and their sizes (total length in m), sex and status during the month of August 2017.

Beach	Date	Time	Species	Size (TL) and sex	Status at release
Ballina to Lennox Head
Lennox Head Beach	04/08/2017	14:06	White Shark	2.3; Male	Alive
Sharpes Beach	05/08/2017 10/08/2017 14/08/2017 17/08/2017	08:59 13:35 15:45 10:16	Greynurse Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark	2.8; Female 2.5; Male 2.1; Male 2.8; Male	Alive Alive Alive Alive
Angels Beach	06/08/2017	09:51	Greynurse Shark	2.8; Female	Alive
South Ballina Beach	28/08/2017	14:11	White Shark	2.8; Female	Alive
Evans Head
Airforce Beach	01/08/2017 01/08/2017 10/08/2017 12/08/2017 24/08/2017 26/08/2017	09:32 09:44 11:25 10:18 15:02 09:57	White Shark Greynurse Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark	2.5; Female 2.7; Female 2.1; Male 2.8; Male 2.2; Female 2.3; Female	Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive
Main Beach	11/08/2017 26/08/2017	09:40 11:23	White Shark White Shark	2.5; Female 2.8; Female	Alive Alive
Shark Bay to Joggly Point	07/08/2017 09/08/2017 26/08/2017	08:40 16:13* 11:38	White Shark Greynurse Shark White Shark	2.2; Male 2.3; Female 2.5; Female	Alive Alive Alive
Coffs Harbour
Park Beach	15/08/2017 17/08/2017 28/08/2017	15:25 12:24 10:53	Dusky Whaler Shark Dusky Whaler Shark Dusky Whaler Shark	2.3; Female 2.6; Female 2.6; Female	Alive Alive Alive
Forster
Tuncurry Beach	14/08/2017 14/08/2017 14/08/2017 17/08/2017 17/08/2017 19/08/2017	09:57 10:11 15:24 13:21 14:57 10:29	White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark	2.9; Female 2.4; Female 3.1; Female 2.8; Female 2.5; Male 2.4; Male	Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive
Main Beach	17/08/2017	15:15	White Shark	2.3; Female	Alive
Pebbly Beach	14/08/2017 15/08/2017	11:12 15:44	White Shark White Shark	2.5; Female 2.5; Female	Alive Alive
One Mile Beach	14/08/2017 16/08/2017 17/08/2017 19/08/2017 19/08/2017 20/08/2017 24/08/2017 31/08/2017	14:42 10:34 16:01 12:34 12:45 9:29 8:36 17:18*	White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark White Shark Thresher - unidentified	2.8; Female 2.9; Female 2.5; Male 2.9; Female 2.2; Male 2.4; Female 2.1; Female ~4.0; unknown	Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive

* indicates no alert but time when contractors found sharks during drumline retrieval

Table 2. Cumulative total of target shark species caught on SMART drumlines since December 2016 at Ballina-Lennox Head (BL), Evans Head (EH), Coffs Harbour (CH) and Forster (F).

	White Shark				Tiger Shark				Bull Shark				Total
	BL	EH	CH	F	BL	EH	CH	F	BL	EH	CH	F
8 Dec – 7 Jan 2017	4	5	-	-	2	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	11
8 Jan – 7 Feb 2017	4	1	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	5
8 Feb – 7 Mar 2017	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0
8 Mar – 7 Apr 2017	0	0	-	-	0	1	-	-	0	0	-	-	1
8 Apr – 7 May 2017	7^a	3^b	-	-	0	0	-	-	2	0	-	-	12
8 May - 31 May 2017	2	5	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	7
1 June - 30 June 2017	5	11	-	-	0	0	-	-	1	0	-	-	17
1 July - 31 July 2017	11	16	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	27
1 Aug - 31 Aug 2017	5	9	0	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30
TOTAL	38	50	0	16	2	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	110

^a– 1 individual died

^b– 1 individual was found dead on Airforce Beach, Evans Head on May 12 after being tagged and released on May 7

Table 3. Cumulative total of non-target species caught on SMART drumlines since December 2016

	Greynurse Shark				Dusky Shark				Whaler Shark - unidentified				Black Ray				Thresher - unidentified				Total
	BL	EH	CH	F	BL	EH	CH	F	BL	EH	CH	F	BL	EH	CH	F	BL	EH	CH	F
8 Dec – 7 Jan 2017	0	2	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	2
8 Jan – 7 Feb 2017	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0
8 Feb – 7 Mar 2017	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0
8 Mar – 7 Apr 2017	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0
8 Apr – 7 May 2017	0	0	-	-	0	1	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0
8 May - 31 May 2017	0	0	-	-	0	1	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	1
1 June - 30 June 2017	0	1	-	-	0	0	-	-	1	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	2
1 July - 31 July 2017	1	1	-	-	1	0	-	-	0	0	-	-	0	1	-	-	0	0	-	-	4
1 Aug - 31 Aug 2017	2	2	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8
TOTAL	3	6	0	0	1	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	17