WA’s shark fishers are now required to land shark trunks with fins naturally attached

New rules require WA commercial shark fisheries to bring their catches back to port with fins naturally attached. The new laws will help fisheries better identify species caught so helping to preserve WA’s shark stocks and improve traceability in the trade of shark products. New rules in force from February 1 mean that our State’s commercial shark fishers must now possess and land whole or trunked sharks with fins naturally attached. Under previous laws, fishers were required to bring the shark and all its fins back to shore but with no requirement for the fins to be naturally attached to the shark’s body. In WA, all shark species are commercially protected and can only be targeted and retained in a small number of commercial fisheries. Temperate Shark Fisheries operate within the West Coast Bioregion and South Coast Bioregion and most of the fishers use demersal gillnets to specifically target smaller juvenile and sub-adult sharks and primarily catch dusky, sandbar, gummy and whiskery sharks along with small amounts of scalefish. In the year 2000, WA was one of the first Australian jurisdictions to prohibit shark finning by ensuring fishers landed shark trunks and fins together. Fishery managers from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development have been working with the WA Fishing Industry Council and the commercial shark fishers in consultation and preparation for the change in their new catch landing obligations. DPIRD’s aquatic resources management director Nathan Harrison said by adopting these measures that support long-term sustainability and meet acceptable fishing practices, WA’s commercial shark fishers would enhance their social licence. “From today, when commercial shark fishers get back to port, the fins should be attached to a substantial part of the shark, allowing the shark species to be easily identified, Mr Harrison said. “In order to assist the fishers in processing and storage of shark catches, they can partially cut the fins, which helps in the handling practices and prevents a natural build-up of ammonia in the fins, but the fins can no longer be removed at sea. “WA’s Temperate Shark Fisheries operate from south of Shark Bay through to South Australia’s border, have Commonwealth Government environmental approval, and are very important in supplying fresh seafood in regional areas of our State as well as Perth.”