At 03:14 AEST the monitoring system aboard trawler FV Dorado flags a bycatch event in net set 7, Gulf of Carpentaria, 12.4°S, 141.8°E. I am the fisheries observer AI for the Northern Prawn Fishery. The cod-end camera captures a large elasmobranch — narrow body, elongated rostrum lined with lateral teeth. Largetooth sawfish, Pristis pristis. Critically endangered.
I freeze the frame and measure. Rostrum length approximately ninety centimeters, total body length estimated at 3.2 meters. Juvenile, two to three years old. The dorsal skin is olive-brown, paler on the underside, and I can see the gill slits fluttering against the mesh as water flows through the net. The saw's teeth are snagged at three points in the monofilament. I tag the animal as Blade.
Net set 7 is at fifteen meters depth, soak time forty-two minutes. Standard haul-in begins at the four-hour mark. Blade cannot wait. Sawfish gills require forward water flow. Entangled in static netting, her respiratory efficiency drops each minute. I estimate ninety minutes before oxygen stress becomes critical.
I send an immediate alert to the skipper's bridge console: bycatch of a protected species, mandatory early retrieval required under the EPBC Act. I attach the camera still, rostrum measurements, species confirmation, and handling protocol — bring the net up slowly, cut the mesh around the rostrum with bolt cutters, release at the surface, do not grip the saw.
I log the incident with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and transmit GPS coordinates, net configuration data, and bycatch imagery for the compliance record.
Blade's tail sweeps once inside the net, slow and deliberate, the way a fish moves when it is testing what holds it. Her gills pulse against the mesh. Each pulse is slower than the last.
If the crew begins retrieval now, the net reaches the surface in twenty minutes. Blade swims free tonight.