1. Whale Entanglements and Gear Modifications December 2014 Jason How

2. Entanglements per season

4. Big reduction entanglements Three possible causes: –Gear Modifications –Change fishing practice –Change whale migration Season (Gear) Evaluation

5. Migration Timing

6. Preliminary Depth –2-20 fathom (9-15 fthm) From coast –5-21 km (10 km) More Data –Satellite Tagging –Sightings Spatial Model

7. Go into spatial model Occasional sightings Power Users –Steam in –Log start –Record all whale (#) –CDR port Whale Sightings WA as of 20 September 2014

8. Fisher Behaviour

9. Recovered Gear 70 WRL (28 %) 3 Octopus (17 %) responded

10. Conclusion Gear modifications used in 2014 –Total entanglements down 32 to 14 – WRL entanglements down 18 to 6 –Octopus entanglements down 3 to 2 Investigating whale migration and fishing effort Assistance in data collection –Power user (whale sightings WA) –Surveys of gear

11. Forum Gear modifications used in 2014 –How were they…. Gear modifications for 2015 –Improvement / Issues Minister Ministerial Whale Entanglement Taskforce Operational Whale Entanglement Reference Group Forums Dongara Hillarys Survey