Gericke's Point
Ocean Fishing.
As a peninsula which offers shore based access to open ocean, Gericke's Point attracts primarily sports fishermen and fishermen targeting sharks.
Sports Fishing.
Gear recovered from the Gericke's Point transect are mainly large hooks with 40% using steel tracers and braided line in conjunction with monofilament.
The tackle snags on the reef with the sinker while the baited hook floats free.
Ghost Fishing.
Some of the tackle is rigged with a small soft float attached directly on the hook shaft which further increases the buoyancy of the baited hooks.
Between Jan 2018 and October 2019, 709 lead sinkers have been recovered from 12 dives on a 100m transect. On each dive we recover a mean of 63 sinkers and 20 hooks from the 100m Transect. Approximately 25% of hooks recovered are rigged with floats on the hook shaft.
These hooks present a very real #GhostFishing threat on the reef and we have recorded 5 species of fish that have died this way at Gericke's Point.
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