North Coast marine species protection record of NSW Coalition Government a very sad affair in 2017

One dead Great White Shark and 30 dead in non-target/ innocuous marine species. The NSW Coalition Government has a worse by-catch kill rate than many super trawlers.

NSW North Coast Shark Meshing Trial Report

Report period: 8 Jan 2017 – 7 Feb 2017

Over 8 Jan – 7 Feb 2017 nets were deployed on 27–31 days at five beaches and each checked 28-39 times (Table 1). The contractors are required to check the mesh nets twice a day, but if the weather or bar conditions prevent safe access, then fewer checks are made.

Table 1: The number of days that mesh nets were deployed at each beach, and the number of times each mesh net was checked over 8 Jan - 7 Feb 2017.

Beach	Number of days net deployed	Number of time net checked
Seven Mile, Lennox Head	27	28
Sharpes, Ballina	27	28
Shelly, Ballina	27	29
Lighthouse, Ballina	27	29
Main, Evans Head	31	39

During the second month, 72 individuals across 11 species were caught in the mesh nets

56% were released

44% were deceased and had tissue samples retained for analyses (Table 2).

of the three target shark species (White, Tiger and Bull Sharks), one White Shark was caught in the mesh nets at Sharpes Beach; the animal was deceased and retained for analysis.

      Table 2: The numbers of each species caught in the mesh nets that were alive and released, or dead at each beach.

Beach	Species	Number alive	Number dead
Seven Mile, Lennox Head	Cownose ray	1	0
	Loggerhead turtle	1	0
	Manta ray	0	1
	Whitespotted guitar fish	1	0
Sharpes, Ballina	Cownose ray	1	0
	Great hammerhead shark	0	2
	White shark	0	1
	Green turtle	0	1
	Manta ray	2	3
Shelly, Ballina	Bottlenose dolphin	0	1
	Cownose ray	3	2
	Great hammerhead shark	0	1
	Manta ray	0	1
	Spotted eagle ray	3	0
Lighthouse, Ballina	Cownose ray	3	2
	Great hammerhead shark	0	4
	Ocellated eagle ray	1	0
	Spotted eagle ray	1	0
Main, Evans Head	Cownose ray	17	7
	Great hammerhead shark	0	3
	Loggerhead turtle	0	1
	Manta ray	0	1
	Ocellated eagle ray	1	1
	Spinner shark	1	0
	Spotted eagle ray	4	0
Total		40	32