It is unacceptable that this fishery is currently targeting high numbers of sharks. Shark populations have plummeted to historically low levels worldwide, with most large shark species declining by 90%. Sharks are inherently vulnerable to overfishing as they are generally slow-growing, late to mature and produce few young. They are also a keystone species and their removal has serious negative effects on marine ecosystems.

At present, the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) supports the export of shark fins from this fishery and is therefore complicit in the unsustainable and wasteful global shark fin industry.

Furthermore, DEEDI allows the shark fishery despite the lack of shark stock assessments in the Gulf and despite the department's own 2006 Ecological Risk Assessment into this fishery raising questions about the sustainability of the shark fishing component. If the Department cannot demonstrate the sustainability of the shark fishery it should not be allowed to proceed.

I request that DEEDI end all targeted shark fishing in the Gulf of Carpentaria and reduce and ultimately eliminate any bycatch of sharks from the fishery.

In addition to this, I am strongly opposed to the specific management arrangements for this fishery that allow fins to be removed from most shark species at sea as long as the fins are stored with the shark carcass. This is shark finning by stealth. It is a loophole found in Queensland fisheries that needs to be closed.

As an interim measure, until all shark fishing can be eliminated, I request that the Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Finfish Fishery is brought into line with other fisheries in Australia by banning the removal of shark fins at sea in this fishery and requiring all species of shark to be landed with their fins naturally attached.

The review of this fishery is a chance to improve the protection of shark species and improve the sustainability of this fishery as a whole. Please don't miss that opportunity.

Yours faithfully,