1 Mar - 31 Mar 2019

Operation

Trials began on the 1 March on the South Coast of NSW with 10 SMART drumlines deployed for 29 days at Tathra and 30 days at Pambula−Merimbula. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 5:38 to 12:33h at Tathra and 5:05 to 12:11h at Pambula−Merimbula. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 9:38h at Tathra and 9:51h at Pambula−Merimbula.

Catch

During March 2019, seven target sharks were caught (Table 1); three female White Sharks and four female Tiger sharks. Non-target animals included two male Bronze Whaler sharks (Table 1).

All sharks were released alive.

Comments

When the contractors responded to 4 alerts at Tathra and 2 alerts at Pambula−Merimbula, they found that three hooks had no bait and three hooks had the bait fully intact.

One SMART drumline failed to set off an alert at Tathra Beach on 1 March 2019. When the contractor arrived at the respective drumline for retrieval at the end of the day, a Tiger Shark was found alive on the line (Table 1). The trigger was still intact and failed to dislodge.

All other animals triggered an alert to the DPI contractors who responded and were at the SMART drumline within an average of 16 minutes at Tathra and 14 minutes at Pambula−Merimbula.

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

*No alert. Time is indicative of when the contractor arrived to pick up the gear at the end of the day.