The management of northern elasmobranchs has a strong need for research to address local and regional management issues. The need is fundamental, the Northern Shark Stock Assessment Review Workshop (QLD, NT, WA and the Commonwealth), Broome 2000, identified the lack of species identification in NT and QLD catches in target and bycatch fisheries as a major concern. This has been clearly recognised at State/Territory, national (NAFM) and international (FAO, IUCN) levels. The sustainability of these species is also an explicit priority with stakeholders. The Northern Australian Fisheries Management (NAFM) Workshop (QLD, NT, WA and the Commonwealth) identified research into elasmobranchs as high priority in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. The NAFM Workshop agreed to write to FRDC to reiterate the high priority of this project. Professor Carl Walters, at a Stock Assessment Workshop in Darwin, examining northern shark catches, also highlighted the issue of inadequate data (Walters and Buckworth 1997) while the National Shark Advisory Group (Nov. 2000) also identified similar issues. There is also a clear need to determine the extent of shared stocks, both within Australia and with Indonesia, to ensure the management scale is appropriate. This project will also address the critical need for information on the biology and catch of sawfishes in northern Australia, research for which Environment Australia have also indicated their support. The first phase of this project (Jul 2001 - Jul 2002) received a high priority from QFIRAC 2000 and was funded by FRDC (FRDC 2001/077). Environment Australia and ACIAR have also funded complementary research on sharks and rays in northern Australia and Indonesia. The current project is critical to ensuring these studies have valid, up to date information on the current catches in northern fisheries. QFIRAC has given this project very strong support, ranking it second of all proposals submitted.