Tas: Different sharks endangered

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Tas: Different sharks endangered

By Don Woolford

HOBART, Aug 6 AAP - The grey nurse and the speartooth could hardly be more differentsharks, but both are critically endangered.

The east coast grey nurse, with a ferocious although undeserved reputation as a man-eater,had been reduced to a few small colonies mainly off the NSW coast, CSIRO fish taxonomistGordon Yearsley said today.

Much less is known of the speartooth shark, one of the few Australian sharks foundin fresh water and confined to a few rivers in far north Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The grey nurse and the speartooth are the only Australian sharks listed as criticallyendangered in a CSIRO publication, Field Guide to Australian Sharks and Rays, which waslaunched in Hobart today.

But another 17 were listed as being in some degree of danger.

Mr Yearsley, who is one of the authors, said the guide was intended to help fishermenidentify sharks and rays and to encourage them to report catches to help fishing authoritiesbetter understand which needed protection.

Rising prices for flesh and fins had increased pressure on stocks and there was growingconcern for many sharks and rays, he said.

Because most sharks and rays grew and bred slowly, they had difficulty recovering iftheir numbers were depleted.

Mr Yearsley said some, like several species of dogfish, were becoming commercially important.

Dogfish had been a by-catch of the orange roughy fishery.

"Ten years ago you never saw them in a market," he said.

"Now they are being targeted, which is putting them in some danger."

Most rays were commercially unimportant.

But the skate, which was highly prized overseas, was being increasingly fished.

However Mr Yearsley thought the most important commercial sharks, the school and gummysharks, were probably safe because much more was known about stocks which were carefullymanaged.

AAP dw/mg

KEYWORD: SHARKS