 Along with the spottail shark, the Australian blacktip shark is one of the most economically important sharks off northern Australia.It was historically fished for its meat and fins by a Taiwanese gillnet fishery, which began operating off northern Australia in 1974.The annual catch initially averaged around 25,000 tons (live weight), with approximately 70% consisting of Australian blacktip sharks, spottail sharks, and longtail tuna ("Thunnus tonggol").