December 26, 2019
The Victorian Fisheries Authority have invited VRFish to comment on a draft Fishery (Gummy and School Shark) Notice.
The draft notice allows endorses commercial license holders to obtain a possession limit of 5 sharks per trip, of which no more than one school shark. The draft notice outlines an endorsement process open to Ocean Fishery, Inshore Trawl, Rock Lobster and Giant Crab Access Licence holders.
Currently, under an agreement with the Commonwealth there is a total allowable catch of 40 tonnes bycatch of gummy and school sharks by Victorian commercial fishers. We understand around 20 tonnes is currently being caught and reported. A 36 tonne trigger limit is proposed to be introduce to ensure that the fishery is managed within the 40 tonne limit.
Submissions are open up until 10 January written comments can be sent to Jo Klemke, Principal Policy Analyst, 1 Spring Street, Melbourne 3000 or [email protected]. You can contribute to VRFish’s submission by sending your comments to [email protected].
Download Draft Fishery (Gummy and School Shark) Notice
To learn more about the Commonwealth fisheries management of these sharks visit the Australian Fisheries Management Authority’s webpages for school shark and gummy shark.
