The Sealord Group, New Zealand’s largest seafood company, has announced it has purchased a NZ$750,000 acoustic optical system (AOS) to conduct research on New Zealand fish stocks. An AOS is a device that emits multiple frequency signals to calculate the amount of fish present. It is particularly effective in assessing aggregations of deep-sea fish and […]

21 May 2013. For immediate release. On May 3, in what has been described by Commonwealth fishing operators as “..a shock move..”, the NSW Minister for Primary Industries the Hon. Katrina Hodgkinson signed a notice removing commercial catch limits for many fish species in NSW, including flathead. This means that state licensed vessels can now […]

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) have stated that increasing productivity of wild fish stocks has allowed an increase in the sustainable seafood harvest catch limits for a number of key species in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF). The South East Trawl Fishery is part of the SESSF. Catch limits for […]

An Australian breakthrough in stock assessment science looks to solve the problem of assessing data-poor fisheries and make assessment processes affordable. The approach estimates the proportion of spawning occurring relative to unfished levels rather than estimating sustainable catch levels directly, simply indicates whether fishing pressure should be incrementally increased or decreased until stocks and catches […]

By Dr James Findlay, CEO AFMA. As Commonwealth fishers understand very well, AFMA undertakes cost recovery for expenses incurred as a direct result of management of commercial fishing. While demands on both industry and AFMA continue to rise, AFMA made a commitment to industry to keep a lid on costs. This included keeping the total […]

The Commonwealth Fisheries Association (CFA), with the support of industry around Australia, has lodged a nomination with the Department of Sustainability, the Environment, Water, Population and Communities for marine seismic survey activities as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. There is growing evidence that seismic surveys cause damage to […]