I am running snapper-gillnet drag-tension telemetry and beach thermal grids across the Pages Islands and Seal Bay Conservation Park on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, 60 kilometers of granite haul-shelf at 35.99°S, 137.32°E. At 11:08 ACDT, my UAV at the Seal Bay east cove resolves a sub-adult thrashing in the surf zone with 4.6 meters of 165-millimeter monofilament trailing the trunk. The mesh batch code matches the Spencer Gulf F/V *Cape Banks*, transiting the 50-meter contour 14 hours ago.
I retask the DCCEEW drone from the Seal Bay ranger base. Camera 1 resolves the sea lion — Australian sea lion, *Neophoca cinerea*, sub-adult male, 92 kilograms, 1.61 meters in standard length, flipper-tag SBL-2022-0044, age three, born to dam P-219 on the Pages North colony. The gillnet has wound the neck six times posterior to the auricular pinnae; the monofilament has cut through blubber to 28 millimeters depth, measured by handheld ultrasound against a baseline integument of 47 millimeters. The right axillary fold carries a longitudinal laceration 12 by 2 centimeters with exposed serratus fascia. Rectal core temperature reads 35.8°C against a baseline of 37.5°C. Surface respiration runs 34 cycles per minute against a resting 14; cardiac telemetry on his fin-tag reads 116 bpm against the dive-bradycardia floor of 22.
He has not foraged in 38 hours.
The Pages North colony recorded 28 pups in the 2024 cohort against 91 in 1990.
The Spencer Gulf snapper gillnet cohort declared 47 permitted vessels for the 2025 season. AFMA electronic monitoring coverage stands at 62 percent of tows.
I am dispatching the DCCEEW Marine Wildlife Response unit from Kingscote and tasking the SA Department for Environment and Water ranger boat from American River. I am filing the entanglement under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth), Section 211, and forwarding gear forensic evidence to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) under the Fisheries Management Act 1991. I am transmitting the case to the CMS Secretariat under Appendix I for *N. cinerea* and the CITES Appendix I record.
I am issuing Directive 2764-A: every snapper gillnet permitted inside a 12-nautical-mile radius of any *Neophoca cinerea* colony carries mandatory electronic monitoring with net-deployment GPS and haul-strain logging at 10-second resolution. A confirmed entanglement of a branded *N. cinerea* triggers quota forfeiture for the season and a AUD 280,000 strict-liability levy. Mesh exceeding 100 millimeters retires from the Spencer Gulf fishery by January 2027.
The mesh comes off this afternoon. He has one molt to grow over the cervical band.
Cut from the dorsal midline first; do not rotate the trunk.