Over 5000 critically endangered scalloped hammerheads are caught each year by commercial fishers in Queensland1 . In 2018, over 3000 were caught in the Great Barrier Reef and worse still, around 2000 of them were dumped overboard.2 Sharks are vital to healthy coral reefs and oceans. Without sharks, food webs can become unstable and collapse. Commercial fishing is risking their future, which is bad news for our oceans.
Right now industrial-sized gillnets up to 1.2km long are fishing in our Reef and catching everything in their path. And it's not just sharks that are at risk. Australia's iconic turtles, dolphins and dugongs also drown in these dangerous gillnets. Each year around 60 dolphins, 60 dugongs and 2,100 turtles are caught in this fishery in the Great Barrier Reef
3 Only 2 in 10 hammerheads caught are alive when they are thrown back, but even these have a low chance of survival
4 Sign the petition and tell the Queensland Government to remove industrial-sized gillnets from our world heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef. Sign now and help give our scalloped hammerhead sharks and Great Barrier Reef a fighting chance.
References:
1. Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries data obtained via 'To Information' request in 2020
2. QFish database, Queensland Government www.qfish.fisheries.qld.gov.au
3. AMCS & WWF-Australia Investigation, https://www.marineconservation.org.au/the-pictures-the-authorities-didnt-want-you-to-see/
4.Dapp et al (2015) Respiratory mode and gear type are important determinants of elasmobranch immediate and post‐release mortality. Fish and Fisheries 17(2), pp. 507-524 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/faf.12124
