Bronze Whaler Shark

Fishing limits

• Size limit: No minimum legal length.
• Bag limit: A combined Bronze Whaler Shark and Dusky Shark limit of 1 shark per day.
• Boat limit: A total of combined Bronze Whaler Shark and Dusky Shark limit of 3 per day. This applies when 3 or more people are fishing on board.

Fishing gear restrictions apply to metropolitan shark fishing.

Identifying a Bronze Whaler

Description

Bronze whalers have:

• a bronze or copper colour on dorsal side
• pale cream to white undersides
• long upper tail lobes
• hook-shaped, non-serrated upper teeth.

They range in size up to 3.2 m and live for up to 32 years.

Bronze Whalers mostly feed on fish and squid.

Habitat

Bronze Whalers are found in the continental shelf and gulf waters of South Australia.

They are highly mobile and have strong seasonality in South Australian waters. Bronze whalers are most commonly sighted and caught between spring and autumn.

Large adult sharks leave the gulfs in autumn to seek out warmer shelf waters and migrate to Western Australia and eastern Australia.