Fisheries Research Articles

Temporal patterns in the size of the main commercial shark species of Western Australia

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2016

Journal Title

Marine & Freshwater Research

ISSN

Print: 1323-1650 Electronic: 1448-6059

Keywords

Gill nets, Overexploitation, Sustainable fishery

Disciplines

Aquaculture and Fisheries | Marine Biology | Natural Resource Economics | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Population Biology | Survival Analysis | Sustainability

Abstract

Declines in the mean size of harvested organisms may indicate overexploitation. In the present study, temporal patterns in the mean size of the four main commercial shark species of Western Australia were evaluated. Unlike commonly observed for other shark populations, there were no strong temporal patterns in the mean size of gummy, dusky and whiskery sharks, whereas the mean size of sandbar sharks showed a gradual increase since 1993. These observations add further evidence that sharks can be fished sustainably when adequate monitoring, assessment and management actions are implemented.

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1071/MF16117