Queensland shark survey

Survey  of net fishers’ interactions with sharks: behavioural and economic drivers

During 2018, Queensland net fishery operators participated in a survey run by Fishery Monitoring to document net fisher’s interactions with sharks. This survey addressed a knowledge need identified by Fisheries Queensland to better understand the reasons influencing why net fishers keep or don’t keep sharks.

Fisheries Queensland staff conducted phone interviews with 121 commercial net fishers currently operating in Queensland waters (Gulf of Carpentaria and east coast) (figure 1). The survey concerned all species of shark and involved fishers spanning the breadth of net fishery operations

Figure 1: Infographic of survey participants

The survey collected information on the relative importance of behavioural and economic drivers influencing shark fishing practices within Queensland’s commercial net fisheries.

Snapshot of survey results

Figure 2: Infographic of key survey results. Numbers are percentages of fishers interviewed.

A key finding of the survey was that recent changes making the reporting of shark catch more difficult is a common reason why many fishers no longer land shark. Fisheries Queensland is taking notice of this and other results and is planning to review and simplify these catch reporting arrangements once the new Vessel Monitoring Program has been rolled out.

Want to find out more ?

A factsheet on the survey results or a copy of the full report can be requested by emailing fisheriesmonitoring@daf.qld.gov.au.
Or a copy of the report can be accessed here: https://era.daf.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/6437/

Support and assistance

Thank you to all commercial net fishers who have generously taken time to participate in the phone survey.

For more information about monitoring Queensland’s commercial shark catch, call 13 25 23, visit fisheries.qld.gov.au or email fisheriesmonitoring@daf.qld.gov.au.