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A Report Card for Australia's Sharks and Rays

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A Report Card for Australia's Sharks and Rays Shark futures: A report card for Australia’s sharks and rays Colin Simpfendorfer, Andrew Chin, Cassandra Rigby, Samantha Sherman, William White March, 2019 FRDC Project No 2013/009 FRDC Project No 2013/009 xx 2017 © 2019 Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-9954471-2-7 Shark futures: a report card for Australia’s sharks and rays 2013/009 2019 Ownership of Intellectual property rights Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University. This publication (and any information sourced from it) should be attributed to Simpfendorfer, C., Chin, A., Rigby, C., Sherman, S., White, W. (2017) Shark futures: a report card for Australia’s sharks and rays’, Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, May. CC BY 3.0. Creative Commons licence All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode. Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of this document should be sent to: [email protected] Disclaimer The authors do not warrant that the information in this document is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortious, or otherwise, for the contents of this document or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this document may not relate, or be relevant, to a readers particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual opinions expressed by those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher, research provider or the FRDC. The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation plans, invests in and manages fisheries research and development throughout Australia. It is a statutory authority within the portfolio of the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the fishing industry. Researcher Contact Details FRDC Contact Details Name: Colin Simpfendorfer Address: 25 Geils Court Address: College of Science & Engineering Deakin ACT 2600 James Cook University, Townsville. Phone: 02 6285 0400 Phone: 07 4781 5287 Fax: 02 6285 0499 Fax: Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web: www.frdc.com.au In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to FRDC publishing this material in its edited form. Contents Contents ................................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ iv Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................. v Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Method ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Results................................................................................................................................................... 14 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 19 Implications .......................................................................................................................................... 20 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 21 Extension and Adoption ...................................................................................................................... 22 Project materials developed................................................................................................................ 24 References ............................................................................................................................................ 25 Appendix A Advisory Group .............................................................................................................. 26 Appendix B Project workshop attendees .......................................................................................... 27 Appendix C Summary of IUCN Red List .......................................................................................... 28 Appendix D Researchers and project staff ....................................................................................... 30 Appendix E Australian Shark Report Card ..................................................................................... 31 Acknowledgments The authors thank the following people and industry associations for their time and valuable input during the development of this project: Ilona Stobutzki (ABARES), Shalan Bray (DAWR), Beth Gibson and Nick Rayns (AFMA), Nigel Roth (DEE), Vic Peddemors (NSW Fisheries), Mark Read (GBRMPA), (Simon Boag) SETFIA and Dave Stone (Sustainable Shark Fisheries). We thank AFMA, DAWR and GBRMPA for letters of support for the project. Appreciation and thanks to Peter Kyne for facilitation of the workshop and the following people for their roles in the advisory group formed for the project: Shalan Bray (DAWR), Barry Bruce (CSIRO), Ivan Lawler (DEE) and Vic Peddemors (NSW Fisheries). Thanks to Samantha Munroe for development of the format and standards of the Shark Species Summaries and for compilation of some Summaries. Thanks also to Nicholas Hill for his work on the Summaries and along with Fernanda de Faria, Nicholas Hill, Tamara Parr and Will Smythe thank you for your diligence in data entry, validation and verification for the ASIS website databases. Abbreviations AFMA Australian Fisheries Management Authority ASIS Australian Shark Information System CAAB Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota CITES Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CMS Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation DEE Department of the Environment and Energy EPBC Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation ERA Ecological Risk Assessments ESD Ecologically Sustainable Development IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature NPF Northern Prawn Fishery OCS Oceania Chondrichthyan Society SAFS Status of Key Australian Fish Stocks SESSF Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery Shark-Plan 2 Australia’s 2nd National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks SSC Species Survival Commission SSG Shark Specialist Group WTO Wildlife Trade Operations Executive Summary In response to increasing concerns for the status of shark and ray populations world-wide and increasing pressure to ensure Australia’s shark and ray species are effectively managed and conserved, this project synthesised the scattered information, assessed individual species’ status and provided a clear and concise overview of the state of Australia’s shark and rays. Project staff from the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture collected available data from peer-reviewed literature, government reports, observer programs and fellow scientists to produce comprehensive databases on species and management measures with input from CSIRO on the most recent taxonomy of this diverse group. A workshop of experts updated the status of more than 200 Australian sharks and rays to generate 194 unique individual species summaries that define their most up-to-date status within the context of Australian fisheries. A Report Card overview indicates that the majority of species are sustainable and in a healthy state; and while Australia’s approach to managing its shark stocks has to date been very good, this needs to be maintained and supported by ongoing research and monitoring. The significant resources generated by the project are available on a website created specifically to support and house the information, the Australian Shark Information System. Australia has one of the most diverse and distinctive shark and ray faunas in the world. About a quarter of the more than 320 species occurring in Australian waters are endemic, and effectively managing these species is important for the sustainable use of marine resources as well as maintenance of biodiversity.
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