The Cost of Catching Marine Wildlife

The Northern Territory (NT) is home to one of the healthiest tropical marine environments in the world. The species diversity in the north is outstanding – in the NT alone there are 1,300 known species of our fishy friends.  In April this year the northern community of the Territory was shocked when photos were circulated in the popular press of commercial barramundi fishers catching large quantities of saw sharks as bycatch in their gill nets.

Saw Sharks (pictured) are listed by the IUCN Red List as ‘Critically endangered’, and by the NT Fisheries as ‘Vulnerable’. Most people would be distressed to know that the barramundi they bought for dinner are responsible for the death of several species of saw sharks. Photo: The Wilderness Society collection

Northern Australian Sawfish 

There are 4 known sawfish species in Australian Waters and three of these are found in the NT: Freshwater sawfish (Pristis microdon), Green sawfish (Pristis Zijsron) and Dwarf sawfish (Pristis clavate).  All are listed by the IUCN Red List as ‘Critically endangered’, and by the NT Fisheries as ‘Vulnerable’.

Most people would be distressed to know that the barramundi they bought for dinner are responsible for the death of several species of saw sharks.  The barramundi fishery, like most other fisheries across northern Australia, catches non-targeted marine wildlife (bycatch) on a regular basis.

Bycatch

The uncomfortable truth is that our fisheries are responsible for the death of a countless number of non-target species each year, including fish, dolphins, dugong, turtles, sharks, sea snakes and sea birds.  In some fisheries, bycatch is the most dominant part of the catch.  Incredibly, up to one third of the global fishery’s catch is not the fish being targeted, but bycatch.  So what is happening to reduce the bycatch problem?  Unfortunately, not much. 

Accurately assessing the sustainability of fisheries is a huge challenge – there is often insufficient data to determine the sustainability of the target species, let alone the bycatch.  Management plans are often implemented in an attempt to reduce the capture and kill of ‘charismatic megafauna’ and threatened species.  While these management plans can reduce the rate of capture, they rarely stop their capture completely.

Marine Parks

Every day our marine wildlife is impacted by fisheries – either directly as target or bycatch species, or indirectly through habitat damage or competition for food.  Marine national parks give our marine wildlife a break from fishing impacts so populations have space to recover.  This is the reason The Wilderness Society is calling for the improved management of fisheries across Australia and why we advocate for a system of marine parks throughout our oceans. 

Our northern oceans are some of the least protected areas in the country and The Wilderness Society is currently pushing for a representative system of marine parks the Northern Territory Seas, to ensure the survival of this unique marine environment.