Parts of the geographic and bathymetric range of the Common Stingaree are under relatively significant pressure from inshore trawling activities as well as other fishing gear. The Common Stingaree is a regular discarded bycatch of otter trawlers and Danish seiners in the southern part of its range in the Commonwealth-managed Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) (Walker and Gason 2007). In southern Queensland, the northern extent of the species’ range, it is taken as bycatch in the Eastern King Prawn (EKP) sector of the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF). This is one of the most common elasmobranch bycatch species in this sector of the fishery and catch data indicates that the species aggregates with nursery areas overlapping with trawling grounds (Kyne et al. 2002, 2016, P. Kyne unpublished data). In New South Wales, the species is a bycatch of the Ocean Prawn Trawl Fishery, as well as in inshore and estuarine trawl fisheries, estuarine prawn seine fisheries, and beach seine fisheries (Gray et al. 1990, Gray and Kennelly 2003, Gray et al. 2003). Given its inshore occurrence, this species is occasionally taken by recreational beach anglers (P. Kyne pers. obs.).
Where the species is taken as bycatch, a concern is the demonstrated low post-release survivorship of trawl caught individuals (Campbell et al. 2018), and the fact that urolophids frequently abort pups upon capture and handling; even if gravid females survived capture, their reproductive output can be lost (White et al. 2001, Trinnie et al. 2009, Adams et al. 2018).
The effects of inshore and coastal habitat degradation on this species are unknown but it may be less affected through habitat modification than other species (for example, the Estuary Stingray Hemitrygon fluviorum) as it is still common in relatively degraded areas (i.e., areas around Sydney).