Australian companies with legal catch quotas valued at about $10 million annually are lobbying for increased naval action against the poachers, whose known catches are estimated at $6 million a year.

Thomas Ray took the most known catches with 19 but he may have been beaten by John Tufton who definitely took 18 (plus one definite stumping) but could have had more.

Due to longstanding confusion between C. fischeri and C. hippos, the importance of each species to African fisheries is poorly understood, with a known combined catch in this region of between 2,233 and 10,054 tonnes per year in 1995-2004.

In Shark Bay, the largest known annual catch was 204 tonnes during 1961.

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so the totals are of the known catches and stumpings only.