Developing a positive cultural attitude towards the capture and release of sharks and rays

It was recently recognised that there is a need to support positive and sustainable cultural attitudes towards sharks and rays through the production of evidence-based educational material to inform sustainable recreational fisher practices. A priority identified was improved education and awareness among the recreational fishers in relation to ethical capture, handling and release practices for sharks and rays. To this end, this project will help facilitate a national workshop to identify priority species and operational factors to investigate during studies aimed at informing sustainable recreational fisher practices for sharks and rays. It will use web-supported telemetry technology, and direct engagement of recreational fishers to collect post-release survival data on the priority species within a structured case-study framework.