Pro shark groups blame Palaszczuk government for shark fishing in Great Barrier Reef

Environmental groups say endangered Great Barrier Reef hammerhead sharks are being fished to extinction after a record number are caught in commercial fishing nets and are not being thrown back alive.

ENVIRONMENTAL groups involved in forcing the Queensland Government’s hand to ban shark culling in the Great Barrier Reef now claim the animals are being fished to extinction.

Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) alongside Humane Society International (HSI), the group who spearheaded stopping Queensland’s shark cull program has condemned the Palaszczuk government’s management of commercial fishing in the Reef, saying hammerhead populations are at risk.

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“The Queensland Government’s mismanagement of endangered hammerhead sharks is shocking,” shark ecologist and AMCS campaigner Dr Leonardo Guida said.

Images of Endangered shark species Scalloped Hammerhead, culled drum line, by QLD Government in the Great Barrier Reef - Photo Supplied Humane Society International

Minister for fisheries Mark Furner said that the groups estimated number of sharks caught in fishing gillnets are an “unscientific guestimate at best”.

“The Queensland Government introduced strong measures in 2018 to protect hammerhead sharks, including more thorough reporting through commercial logbooks and quota reporting,” he said.

Figures collated by the two charities from the Queensland Government’s QFish database reveal that 2,491 hammerhead sharks were dumped overboard after being caught in commercial gillnets in 2018.

Dr Guida said that studies show that around 80 per cent of sharks dumped back into the ocean go back dead.

AMCS’s data also shows that 3,359 endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks were caught in the Reef during 2018, with 1,967 being dumped back into the ocean.

The remaining 1,392 were used in the commercial meat and fin trade.

Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society released photos of endangered scallop hammerhead sharks hanging dead off drumlines installed around Magnetic Island.

Mr Furner said that Queensland prohibited finning years ago.

HSI Campaigner Lawrence Chlebeck said that the federal and state governments need to take immediate action.

“Scalloped hammerhead shark populations gave declined to 84 per cent in the Reef,” he said

The Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef was also contacted for comment but referred the matter to the Department of Fisheries.