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Blue Threadfin
Latin name: Eleutheronema tetradactylus
Common names: Blind Tassal Fish, Blue Salmon, Threadfin
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Wild Caught
Region:
NT
- Blue threadfin are caught in commercial gillnet fisheries in coastal waters, estuaries and river mouths in QLD, WA and NT waters, in fishing targeting barramundi.
- It is likely that populations are healthy given the small scale of the fishery.
- This fishery catches a range of threatened species, including dolphins, dugongs, turtles, hammerhead sharks, and multiple species of critically endangered sawfish. It is likely that this fishery is causing declines of some species and poses a high risk.
- Blue threadfin fishing has a relatively low physical impact, due to the resilience of shallow muddy coastal habitats where nets are deployed.
- Northern Territory Barramundi Fishery (3.5t in 2019)
Blue threadfin are found throughout tropical Australian inshore, estuarine and freshwater coastal environments, and are also found in southern Papua New Guinea.
Blue threadfin are caught in the gillnet fisheries that predominantly target barramundi, with the NT fishery catching relatively small volumes.
Given the indiscriminate nature of the gillnet fishing methods used, barramundi fisheries have high levels of bycatch. The NT Barramundi Fishery is known to catch a wide variety of threatened and protected species, such as dolphins, turtles, northern river and scalloped hammerhead sharks, and dugongs.
The likely levels of bycatch in this fishery have a high potential to be causing declines of endangered sawfish populations.
Despite an effort to improve reporting, an independent monitoring project started in 2018 was largely inadequate with findings unpublished to date and reporting remains unreliable.
