1-31 May 2019

Operation

During May 2019, 20 SMART drumlines were deployed for 28 days at Ballina-Lennox Head and 15 SMART drumlines for 29 days at Evans Head. Environmental conditions determined how long SMART drumlines were deployed on any given day, ranging from 5:25h to 10:09h. On average, SMART drumlines were deployed daily for 8:25h at Ballina-Lennox Head and 8:23h at Evans Head.

Catch

During May 2019, seven target sharks were caught (Table 1): three female White Sharks and four Tiger Sharks (3 female and 1 male). No non-target animals were caught (Table 1).  All sharks were released alive.

Comments

When the contractor responded to two alerts that had no catch, they found that the hook had either 80% or 100% of the bait remaining.

Two SMART drumlines failed to set off an alert at Shark Bay, Evans Head on the 2 May 2019 and Airforce Beach, Evans Head on the 25 May 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). Both sharks were tagged and released immediately.

All other sharks triggered an alert to the DPI contractors who responded and were at the SMART drumline within an average of 16 minutes.

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

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