Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery Assessment 2017/18

The Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery is a multi-species fishery operating in State fishing waters and encompassing a wide variety of capture methods and species. The Scalefish Fishery Management Plan (amended in 2015), provides the management framework for the fishery.

Fishery assessment

Since the early 1990s, annual commercial catches of the major species have generally declined. Total scalefish production (excluding small pelagics and cephalopods) declined from over 1,000 t in the mid-1990s to around 300 t in recent years, due in part to changed targeting practices and market demand, the transfer of the southern shark fishery to the Commonwealth in 2000 and introduction of the Scalefish Fishery Management Plan in 1998.

There has been a continuous decline in the number of vessels participating in the scalefish fishery and in the number of scalefish fishing licences since 2000. Although effort performance indicators were not triggered for any fishing method, for certain species (e.g. Blue Warehou) there are ongoing concerns regarding the level of latent capacity within the fishery from licence holders who are currently either participating at low levels or not active (only 20–50% of licences are active depending on the type).

Catch and effort information for the recreational fishery are available periodically and have demonstrated that the recreational catch in recent years represents a significant component of the total harvest for species such as Sand Flathead, Striped Trumpeter, Bastard Trumpeter, Blue Warehou, Flounder, Mullet, Barracouta, Jackass Morwong, Cod, and Leatherjacket.

Species assessments

For the current report, available fishery and biological information has been assessed against a series of revised reference points that have been applied for several years, and now formally replace out-dated ones proposed in the original (1998) policy document. In assessing the status of each species, the national stock reporting framework (i.e. Sustainable, Recovering, Depleting, Depleted and Undefined) has been adopted. It should be noted that the stock reporting framework adopted here only defines the stock against the limit reference point of whether it is recruitment overfished or not. Target reference points (i.e. those that correspond to levels of biomass and fishing pressure that are considered to provide for optimal harvests) have not been defined at this stage. It should also be noted that Banded Morwong has been considered in a separate assessment report. This change from previous reports reflects differences in the timetable for setting the annual total allowable catch for Banded Morwong (based on quota year) compared with routine assessment reporting for the other scalefish species (based on financial year).