Fishing limits

  • Size limit: No minimum legal length
  • Bag limit: A combined limit of 1 per day for the below shark and ray species
  • Daily boat limit when 3 or more people are fishing on board: 3

Species with combined daily fishing limits

Fishing gear restrictions apply to metropolitan shark fishing.

Learn about the rules and handling guidelines for fishing for sharks and rays.

Identification

Common Thresher Sharks have:

  • grey to silver or purple dorsal side
  • a white underside
  • very large eyes
  • a small mouth with small sharp cutting teeth
  • a distinctly long upper tail lobe, approximately the same length as the body from the snout to the origin of the tail, with small, curved cusp near the tip.

Some Common Threshers have a distinctive blotchy ‘cow hide’ pattern, often dark on top with light colouring down the flanks and near the anal fin and tail.

Common Threshers are warm blooded and grow up to 5.5 m in length. They can swim at very high speeds and can jump out of the water when hooked or whilst feeding.

Common Threshers mostly prey on small pelagic fishes and squids. They often whip and stun their prey with their tail before eating it.

Habitat

Common Threshers live in both gulfs, in shelf waters and along the continental shelf slope. They regularly swim near river mouths, reef slopes and banks where small pelagic fishes aggregate.

On a daily basis they move rapidly throughout the water column between inshore and outer shelf waters.

Common Threshers are commonly caught in spring and autumn.