1-28 April 2019

Operation

The trial ended on 28 April 2019 on the South Coast of NSW with 10 SMART drumlines deployed for 28 days at Tathra and 28 days at Merimbula−Pambula. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 5:12 to 11:01h at Tathra and 5:19 to 11:17h at Merimbula−Pambula. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 8:31h at Tathra and 8:45h at Merimbula−Pambula.

Catch

During April 2019, four target sharks were caught, all at Tathra (Table 1); three White Sharks (1 male and 2 female) and one female Tiger Shark. Non-target animals included two Bronze Whaler Sharks and one Greynurse Shark (Table 1).

All sharks were released alive.

Comments

When the contractors responded to 3 alerts at Tathra and 1 alert at Merimbula−Pambula, they found that three hooks had no bait and one hook had the bait fully intact.

All animals triggered an alert to the DPI contractors who responded and were at the SMART drumline within an average of 7 minutes at Tathra and 17 minutes at Merimbula−Pambula.

Table 1: The date and time of capture of species and their sizes (total length in m), sex, and status during the month of April 2019.