Shark Protection Zone Considered

Release from: Belinda Tasker
news.com.au (Australia)

Strict no-fishing zones could soon be introduced along the New South Wales coast as part of a desperate bid to protect the dwindling numbers of grey nurse sharks.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC) has launched legal action calling for the zones to be introduced in popular fishing spots amid fears the shark could be wiped out.

The NCC wants the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to order the NSW Government to set up 18 sanctuaries in areas including Sydney's Maroubra beach, Montague Island off the south coast and South West Rocks on the mid north coast.

It also wants the tribunal to overturn a federal government decision made last June to allow a major commercial fishery to operate in grey nurse shark habitats in NSW waters.

NCC spokeswoman Megan Kessler said ocean trap and line fishery operations were affecting the grey nurse sharks, which are popularly known as the labradors of the sea.

?There are fewer than 500 left on the east coast,? Ms Kessler said.

?They are critically endangered at a commonwealth level and they are currently endangered at state level.?

The NCC believes hook and line fishing methods lead to about half of the known grey nurse shark deaths each year.

Ms Kessler said some conservationists feared the shark could be ?quasi extinct? within 10 to 20 years if nothing is done to protect their habitats.

She said when former federal environment minister Ian Campbell approved ocean trap and line fishery operations in NSW he failed to consider the impact they would have on the shark.

The NCC wants the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to set up no fishing zones in 16 known grey nurse shark habitats in NSW waters plus another two in commonwealth waters.

The zones would extend for about 1.5km around the habitats, taking up less than one per cent of state waters.

Grey nurse sharks, which can grow up to about three metres, are not known to attack humans.

However, countless numbers of the sharks were killed off in the 1960s and 1970s amid fears of possible attacks.

As well as along the NSW coast, grey nurse sharks can be found in waters off Western Australia, South Africa and the United States.

But conservationists say that the different groups of sharks remain isolated from each other, limiting their breeding opportunities.

Adding to the threats to their populations posed by fishing, the sharks do not sexually mature and start breeding until they are nine years old.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing, being held in Sydney, is expected to run all week.