Charles Darwin University is collaborating with the fishing industry in a project aiming to decrease the amount of threatened rays and sharks caught during net fishing in northern Australia.

CDU’s Research Institute for Environments and Livelihoods research fellow Dr Joni Pini-Fitzsimmons said in a statement the project brought together professional fishers, industry consultants, fisheries managers, and researchers across the NT, Western Australia, and Queensland to investigate strategies to reduce catch rates of threatened sharks and rays and improve the sustainability of the Territory’s commercial net fisheries.

She said several northern Australian fisheries use panels of netting with mesh that are held vertically in the water column, either attached to fishing vessels or anchored to the ocean floor.

Dr Pini-Fitzsimmons said these nets are effective at catching target commercial fish species but can also incidentally catch other marine animals such as threatened sharks and rays as bycatch, and the overarching aim was to “lessen, or ideally eliminate, the interaction between nets and threatened species.”

“This project will not only benefit these remarkable creatures but also bolster the sustainability of the seafood industry. It holds the potential to drastically reduce the bycatch of numerous threatened species of sharks and rays that call our northern waters home, including sawfish, river sharks, and devil rays,” she said.

Dr Pini-Fitzsimmons said the project will evaluate the effectiveness of new mitigation devices to deter threatened species from nets. It will also investigate alternative fishing gear to minimise bycatch while sustaining the target catches such as barramundi, grey mackerel, and king threadfin.

The project is a collaboration between, and has also received co-investment from CDU, the Northern Territory Industry, Tourism and Trade Department, Western Australian Primary Industries and Regional Development Department, Rob Fish, C-AID Consultants, Atlantis Fisheries Consulting Group, Wild Barra Fisheries, and Wren Fishing Group.

Wren Fishing Group financial coordinator Tina Hutchinson said the project aimed to strengthen the environmental stewardship and economic and social outcomes of net fisheries in the NT.

“It is research like this that further boosts Australian consumer confidence in their favourite seafood, knowing it has been sourced by world-leading professional fishing practices and methods,” Ms Hutchinson said.

The project, which is also funded through the federal government’s Threatened and Migratory Species Fisheries Bycatch Mitigation Program, will run until June 2025.