Shark fishing in Australia Australia’s oceans play host to a rich and largely unique variety of sharks and wider members of the shark ‘family’ known as condrichthyans (sharks, rays, skates and ghost shark). 300 of the 1025 species of condrichthyans are found in Australian waters, half of which are endemic – found nowhere else on earth. With this rich diversity comes a heavy responsibility to conserve the animal Australian surfers refer to affectionately as “the man in the grey suit”.
However, the crisis facing sharks isn’t just a problem in foreign seas. Australian vessels regularly take sharks as target and non-target catch. Our fisheries land hundreds of thousands of sharks each year. Thankfully, shark finning at sea, where the fins are cut off the shark and the carcass is thrown overboard, is banned in Australia (thanks to AMCS). However, shark fin fishing continues. Sharks are still being targeted for their high value fins although their carcasses are now landed and sold on the domestic market as ‘flake’ or sold as low value waste products. Staggeringly, sharks are still being hunted for their fins and meat in the Great Barrier Reef – an area purportedly set aside to protect its unique and precious environment and correspondingly recognised as a World Heritage Area.
Ocean lovers are encouraged to take urgent action on a fishery in the Gulf of Carpentaria that is currently shark finning by stealth! The Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Finfish Fishery is targetting high numbers of sharks, some of which are destined for the international trade in shark fin. Take Action! Send a letter to the Gulf of Carpentaria Fishery by clicking here
