Proposed management action for scalloped hammerhead shark in the Gulf of Carpentaria

The Federal Threatened Species Scientific Committee is currently reassessing scalloped hammerhead shark against the threatened species criteria under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999, with a decision on the listing due on 30 April 2022. The draft conservation advice provided by the Committee is that the species is eligible for listing as endangered. A copy of the Commonwealth Threatened Species Scientific Committee Conservation Advice is available in the document library on this page.

If the species is listed as endangered, fishers in all Australian jurisdictions would be required to take all reasonable steps to avoid interacting with scalloped hammerhead shark, and would no longer be able to retain the species. This would have significant implications for the Gulf of Carpentaria and East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fisheries, and for Northern Territory fisheries.

In order to attempt to maintain a Conservation Dependent listing, which allows commercial fishers to retain scalloped hammerhead, Fisheries Queensland is seeking your feedback on the proposed urgent management action options:

• Option 1 – Implement a Gulf of Carpentaria hammerhead harvest strategy and regulate fins to be naturally attached for all hammerhead shark only in the Gulf of Carpentaria. A copy of the Draft Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria Hammerhead Harvest Strategy is available in the document library. 
• Option 2 – Regulate scalloped hammerhead shark as a no-take species in the Gulf of Carpentaria, either as an interim measure until fisheries reforms for Gulf of Carpentaria fisheries are finalised or permanently, in an attempt to maintain a conservation dependant listing.

Alternatively, Fisheries Queensland is seeking feedback on hammerhead shark becoming a no-take species in the Gulf of Carpentaria, either as an interim measure until fisheries reforms for Gulf of Carpentaria fisheries are finalised or permanently.

Fisheries Queensland is seeking your feedback on these proposed management arrangements.