Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L01089:reg:20:p3
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L01089
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 20 (pt 3/33)
Character Range: 8480–11262

life span of the grey nurse shark in the wild is unknown, studies in captivity in South Africa indicate they may live up to 35 years (Smith et al., 1998).

In Australia, the grey nurse shark has an inshore coastal distribution primarily in sub-tropical to cool temperate waters on the continental shelf. There are two separate, genetically distinct grey nurse shark populations in Australian waters—one on the east coast and one on the west coast (Stow et al., 2006). Grey nurse sharks have been caught only rarely in the Arafura Sea and have not been identified in Tasmanian waters (Read & Ward, 1986; Last & Stevens, 2009). The east coast population covers a range of approximately 2700 km and extends from the Capricornia coast (central Queensland) to Narooma in southern New South Wales (Otway et al., 2003; Bansemer, 2009; Otway et al., 2009). Sightings data from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) includes sightings as far south as the NSW/Victoria border (NSW DPI, 2002). The range of the west coast population is less well known, however records indicate that the species is widely distributed from the North West Shelf (including coastal waters in Exmouth Gulf), south to coastal waters near Cocklebiddy in the Great Australian Bight (McAuley et al., 2002; Cavanagh et al., 2003), covering a range of approximately 2900 km.

    2.2 Population trends

Prior to 1998, limited data describing the spatial and temporal patterns of abundance of the grey nurse shark along the east coast of Australia were available (Pepperell, 1992; Reid & Krogh, 1992; Krogh, 1994; Dudley, 1997). In the 1960s, the grey nurse shark was anecdotally known to aggregate at approximately 60 sites along the east coast of Australia, with at least 30 individuals observed at each site (Cropp, 1964). However, later surveys (1999, 2000 and 2003) conducted by NSW DPI highlighted that the grey nurse shark was absent from many of the sites occupied during the 1960s and, at the time of these surveys, there were only a few sites where the species could be reliably observed (Otway et al., 2003; Bennett & Bansemer, 2004). Similar declines were identified in both the bather protection programs and game fishing records (Pepperell, 1992), suggesting the grey nurse shark on the east coast had experienced a dramatic decline in population numbers over the latter half of the 20th century.

Recent research has obtained relatively robust estimates for the east coast grey nurse shark population. All estimates put the total east coast population above 1131 individuals, with the highest estimate being 2142 individuals (Bansemer, 2009; Bansemer & Bennett, 2010; Cardno Ecology Lab, 2010). An estimate of approximately 1365 individual grey nurse sharks is considered the most