Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles in Australia
1. Bycatch of Marine Turtles in Fisherie1. Bycatch of Marine Turtles in Fisheries
Start here
Get a plain-English read of 1. Bycatch of Marine Turtles in Fisherie
Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles in Australia.
1. Bycatch of Marine Turtles in Fisheries
As a case study in marine turtle bycatch mitigation, prawn trawling offers some insights into the documentation of bycatch and the trialling and implementation of measures to resolve the issue. Five species of turtle have been recorded as bycatch in prawn trawls in the Northern Prawn Fishery (Poiner and Harris 1994, Poiner and Harris 1996), and East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery (ECOTF) (Robins 1995; Robins and Mayer, 1998). Estimates of the number caught and drowned in the NPF for 1989 and 1990 and estimated average annual catch in the ECOTF is given in Table 6. Flatback turtles made up the majority of the turtle catch (59 per cent) in the NPF (Poiner and Harris 1996) and loggerheads made up the majority of the turtle catch (50 per cent) in the ECOTF (Robins 1995). It is also notable that in the ECOTF, 80 per cent of turtle captures are derived from three components of the fishery: Moreton Bay (52.9 per cent), tiger prawn (15.6 per cent) and the banana prawn (11.4 per cent).
There are no data available on the mortality from otter trawls in Western Australia but data from the Western Australian Marine Turtle Program (WAMTP) shows that most species are caught (Prince 1998).
Table 6. Numbers of turtles estimated to have been caught and drowned in the Northern Prawn Fishery in 1989 and 1990 (Poiner and Harris 1996) and East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery (Robins 1995)
| 1989 - NPF | 1990 - NPF | 1991-92 ECOTF | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated no. caught | 5,503 ± 424 (SE) | 5,238 ± 404 (SE) | 5,295 ± 1231 (SE) |
| Estimated no. drowned | 567 ± 140 | 943 ± 187 | 340 |
| No. trawlers | 223 | 200 | 900 |
| Turtles per standard net hour | 0.0124 | 0.0101 | 0.0057 |
In 1999 the Endangered Species Scientific Subcommittee (ESSS) recommended that the incidental catch (bycatch) of marine turtles during coastal otter trawl fishing operations in Australian waters north of 28ºS be added as a key threatening process on schedule 3 of the ESP Act (ESSS 1999). The ESSS advised that otter trawl fishing operations were adversely affecting two listed marine turtle species and could cause another species to become endangered.
However, a drafting error in the ESP Act did not allow the listing of a threat that occurs in both State and Commonwealth waters. The EPBC Act has overcome that deficiency and following consideration by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC), 'Incidental catch (bycatch) of Sea Turtle during coastal otter-trawling operations within Australian waters north of 28 degrees South' was listed as a key threatening process, effective 4 April 2001. The committee determined that a threat abatement plan was not necessary given actions already underway.