Whale Entanglement Mitigation

As Humpback whale populations in the southern hemisphere recover from past commercial whaling, the potential for interactions between whales and commercial fishing operations is increasing, with most entanglements occurring since 2006. The majority of entanglement incidents involve Humpback whales, a species listed as Vulnerable under the Commonwealth EPBC Act and NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. Whale entanglements are complex and often dangerous incidents to respond to. Due to the size of whales, disentanglement operations require staff to have specialist training and skills. While disentanglement provides a means for dealing with incidents as they arise, the optimum solution to the problem involves reducing the risk of entanglement.

Prior to this project a number of NSW OTL fishers had made initial efforts to mitigate risks associated with whales becoming entangled in set fishing gear, including:

•  trialling sections of rope of reduced breaking strength close to surface head gear,

• trialling lead core rope within the trotline of Spanner Crab fishing gear, and

• modifying fishing effort within the whale migration season.

OceanWatch partnered with the Professional Fishermen’s Association (PFA) to host a workshop as the first stage of the East Coast Whale Entanglement Mitigation Program.
The workshop objectives identified a range of fishing gears and techniques suitable for the mitigation of whale entanglements to be tested by commercial fishers, and considered modification of existing NSW OTL Fishery Codes of Practice to include specific practices to mitigate whale entanglement. Allowing for limitations in budget and timeframe, the report recommends that initial gear trials should introduce industry to a range of mitigation measures, including modifications not currently permitted under current NSW OTL fisheries management arrangements through an agreed permit
process.

The East Coast Whale Entanglement Mitigation Program is made up of two individual projects, supported by OceanWatch Australia, through funding from the Australian Government and the Australian Government Marine Park Fisheries Assistance Extension Program.