School shark pupping areas in inshore waters of Tasmania and Victoria identified by Olsen in the 1940s and 1950s were re-sampled using gillnets & longlines from 1991-97. Current catch rates are much lower at all sites and pups are apparently no longer present at some sites. Additional sampling of mainly inshore embayments in Tasmania and Victoria failed to locate significant new pupping grounds of school shark. Limited sampling in South Australia and Western Australia failed to catch school shark pups. Relatively few gummy shark pups were caught anywhere in this study; no significant pupping grounds were located and pupping appears to take place over scattered locations in inshore waters. Catch data includes a wide variety of sharks, rays and teleosts species, the most numerous being: Squalus megalops, Platycephalus bassensis, Squalus acanthias, Pseudophycis bachus, Aldrichetta forsteri, Mustelus antarticus, Callorhynchus milii, Galeorhinus galeus, Tracurus declivis, Cephaloscyllium laticeps, Neosebastes scorpaenoides, Platycephalus richardsoni, and Sillago bassensis. The fish catch data was taken from school shark nursery areas in Tasmania and Victoria, this study is split into 2 portions, first a 12 month study (91-92), followed by a multi-year study (92-97).
Further documentation was added in March 2014, see below.
