SMART Drumline Catch Report

February 2019

Operation Summary

During February 2019, 10 SMART drumlines (SDL) were deployed during daylight hours for eight days across the Gracetown SMART drumline fishing zone. As the trial commenced on 21 February 2019, the February report only reflects the first eight days of operations. Future reports will reflect a full month of operations.

Weather permitting, SMART drumlines are deployed and retrieved each day.

Catch Summary

During the eight days of fishing operations in February 2019, no target species (white sharks) were caught. Six non-target species of sharks were caught, along with two other non-target species.

Full details are listed in the table below.

Other comments

During February, SMART drumlines were activated 13 times, with an average response time of 14 minutes. The maximum response time of 30 minutes from alert, via the SDL, to arrival of the vessel at the SDL was exceeded on one occasion. This was due to two sharks being captured on drumlines at the same time (23 February) at either end of the SMART drumline zone.

Table 1. SMART drumline (SDL) target species catch details for February 2019.

*No target species caught in the eight days of fishing operations in February 2019.

Table 2. SMART drumline (SDL) non-target species and by-catch details for February 2019.

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