Save Our Sharks

Sharks are critical to ocean food-webs; they maintain the balance of life in the sea, keeping coral reefs and seagrass meadow habitats healthy.

However, numbers of oceanic sharks and rays have globally declined by 70% in just the last 50 years (1). In Australian waters, one in eight species are threatened with extinction (2).

We need to improve Australian fisheries and put an end to shark culling to save our endangered sharks and rays.

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Threats to Sharks

Despite its popularity, nearly one third of Australians do not know that “flake” is shark meat. Though “flake” should only refer to two shark species that aren’t threatened (gummy; rig), studies have found a variety of other sharks making it onto our plates, including endangered sharks.

In 2024, a DNA study revealed 10% of shark meat sold in Australian fish shops and markets was endangered species, including greeneye spurdog, school shark and scalloped hammerhead.

Just like humans, sharks and rays take a long time to mature, and generally have few offspring (‘pups’). One in eight are threatened with extinction in Australian waters, primarily because we're catching them faster than they can reproduce.

Endangered sharks are often caught accidentally as ‘bycatch’ when targeting another species. However, several endangered shark species caught by Australian fisheries can be legally kept and sold for consumption.

All Australian fisheries need to modernise their methods to make sure that fishers are not catching endangered species. It’s imperative to have cameras on board all boats so fishery managers know when too many endangered species are being accidentally caught so that fishers can be informed to move on to other fishing grounds or stop fishing altogether. The extra data will also help improve planning to protect endangered species.

There is hope. Australia has the resources and expertise to save these species - if we act now. Taking action with AMCS to save sharks and giving flake a break by choosing sustainable seafood alternatives using our GoodFish Guide are two simple ways anyone can help.

For nearly 90 years, the Queensland (QLD) and New South Wales (NSW) governments have operated a shark culling program using drumlines (baited hooks; QLD only) and shark nets.

Hundreds of targeted sharks, many of them threatened species, are caught each year in each state. During their 90 years, shark nets and drumlines have also caught and killed at least 15,135 other marine animals in NSW alone, including turtles, whales, dolphins, rays, and dugongs. Since 2001, Queensland's shark nets and drumlines have caught 413 whales and dolphins, 907 turtles, 1766 rays and culled 13,167 sharks (3).

In 2019, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal concluded that based on ‘overwhelming’ scientific evidence, the lethal component of the QLD Shark Control Program (SCP) does not reduce the risk of shark bite, and that the SCP is having a serious impact on QLD's threatened marine species (4). In 2024, a damning report from NSW scientists stated that “... at present there is no evidence that such actions [shark nets] do decrease fatalities... in the area where nets are deployed they [Huveneers et al. (2024)] could not detect differences between netted and non-netted beaches in attack." (5)

Shark netting and lethal drumlines are beach safety standards that are nearly 90 years old. We wouldn’t accept safety standards that are nearly 90 years old in our schools, workplace or home, so why should the beach be any different?

It’s time the NSW and QLD governments abandon the cull and fully modernise beach safety standards with evidence-based solutions. It’s a win-win for humans and wildlife alike.

Why are sharks important?

If too many sharks are removed from an ecosystem, it can upset the balance between predators and prey all the way through the food chain. Research has shown that healthy shark populations are crucial to the health of coral reefs (7,8). Further research also shows that sharks may even help us combat climate change by preventing seagrasses, an important carbon store, from being overgrazed by animals like dugongs (9,10).

Australia is a shark and ray hotspot, home to one quarter of the world’s known species. Of the 331 species that cruise our waters, almost half (41%) are endemic – that is, they’re found nowhere else on earth! (11) Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to fishing pressure because, like us humans, they mature slowly, give birth to few young and are long-lived. On average, they mature at 10 years old, have reproductive cycles of 1-2 years and produce 4-6 pups at a time (12). In short, their populations take a long time to recover from over-exploitation.

One in eight species of shark and ray in Australian waters are threatened with extinction, primarily because of overfishing (13). Sharks have been on earth for around 450 million years surviving five mass extinction events, but will they survive us? We are their biggest threat, and their only hope.

 

 

How can sharks be saved?

With your support, here’s some of the recent big wins we’ve had to help save sharks and rays: 

  • We stopped the WA shark cull in 2015
  • In 2021, we reduced the shark quota by 100 tonnes in Queensland (including within the Great Barrier Reef), saving an estimated 20,000 sharks annually.
  • In 2023, Ewe ensured that sharks and rays caught for food in Australian fisheries are brought back to port in one piece with their fins on, stamping out illegal shark finning.
  • In 2024 we secured 11,600 sq.km of gillnet free areas in the Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria, giving a huge boost to sawfish protection and recovery efforts.
  • In 2024, we secured protection of all hammerhead species from fishing in Queensland, and the protection of endangered endemic sharks and rays in South Australia. 

But we still have a long way to go. We are currently focusing on:

  • Ensuring Australia’s living dinosaur, the Maugean skate, does not go extinct because of intensive salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania.
  • Protecting and helping one of the world’s most endangered  and iconic fish, the sawfish, recover in number across northern Australia.
  • Ensuring Australia’s most threatened and unique species of shark and ray are protected under Australian law.
  • Working with communities and organisations to end shark culling around Australia

 

More we must do for sharks

There is no legal requirement to accurately label seafood by species. Shark flesh, or ‘flake’ as it's commonly known, could be any shark or ray, including endangered species like the scalloped hammerhead or the uniquely Australian greeneye spurdog (14). Flake should only refer to gummy or rig sharks which are not a threatened species. We also import shark meat and fins from South Africa, South America and south-east Asia, regions with poorer fishing regulations than Australia. Customers and in some cases, retailers, currently have very little idea what species of shark they’re buying or selling at the fish and chip shop. Because of such uncertainty, the risk to endangered species, and the inability to trace the product to a sustainable fishery, AMCS does not currently support any targeted shark fishing in Australia, and recommends that the public avoid and ‘give flake a break’ when eating seafood.

Non-lethal alternatives to shark culling already exist and are in use around Australia. Innovative approaches include the use of drones, and shark tagging and monitoring, where tagged sharks send their location in real-time via satellite and as they swim past underwater detectors.

Combined with improved community education, we can use non lethal methods like these to help us avoid unnecessary encounters with sharks. These methods of shark control will also improve our knowledge of shark behaviour. With so many of our magnificent, graceful shark species under threat, this conservation data is critical.

Save our Sharks and Rays

Almost half of Australia’s 331 sharks and rays are found nowhere else in the world so it’s entirely up to us to save them. Help Australia return as the world leader in shark conservation.

We’ve worked for decades to champion the plight of these diverse and wonderful sea creatures. Together with you, we secured a national approach to stamping out illegal shark finning, reduced the shark catch in our precious Great Barrier Reef, stopped the shark cull in Western Australia, and boosted sawfish protections by establishing 11,600 sq.km of net free zones in the Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria. 

Now more than ever, we need your strength and passion so that we can really make a positive difference for our magnificent sharks and rays. We are their biggest threat, but also their only hope.

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References
  1.  Pacoureau, N (2021) “Half a Century of Global Decline in Oceanic Sharks and Rays.” Nature 589, no. 7843:567–71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03173-9.
  2.  Kyne, PM et al (2021) “The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021.” Report. Hobart: NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub.
  3.  Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries QFish dataset https://qfish.fisheries.qld.gov.au/
  4.  Humane Society International (Australia) Inc and Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (Qld) [2019] AATA 617 (2 April 2019) https://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AATA/2019/617.html
  5.  NSW TSSC (2025). “NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee. Response to the Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program  2023/2024 Annual Performance Report.” NSW, Australia: NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-03/tssc-advice-2023-2024-smp-annual-performance-report.pdf 
  6.  Kielniacz, TJP et al. (2024) “High Levels of Mislabelling of Shark Flesh in Australian Fish Markets and Seafood Shops.” Marine and Freshwater Research 75, no. 7. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23198.
  7.  Barley et al (2017) Diet and condition of mesopredators on coral reefs in relation to shark abundance. PLoS ONE 12(4): e0165113. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165113
  8.  Barley et al (2017) Species diversity, abundance, biomass, size and trophic structure of fish on coral reefs in relation to shark abundance. Marine Ecological Progress Series 565: 163–179
  9.  Heithaus, M. R. et al. (2014) Seagrasses in the age of sea turtle conservation and shark overfishing. Front. Mar. Sci. 1.
  10.  Nowicki, R. J. et al (2021) Loss of predation risk from apex predators can exacerbate marine tropicalization caused by extreme climatic events. J. Anim. Ecol. 90, 2041–2052.
  11.  Kyne, PM et al (2021) “The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021.” Report. Hobart: NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub.
  12.  Heupel, MR et al. (2019) “Shark Action Plan Policy Report.” Report. NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub, August.
  13.  Kyne, P. M., et al (2021) The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021. NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub, Australia.
  14.  Kielniacz, Teagan J. Parker, Adam J. Stow, and Nicolette C. Armansin. “High Levels of Mislabelling of Shark Flesh in Australian Fish Markets and Seafood Shops.” Marine and Freshwater Research 75, no. 7 (May 6, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23198.

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