An AOS survey completed in winter 2019 found that there were 42,600 tonnes of adult fish spawning on two hills in the eastern zone. Immature, non-spawning and southern fish were not surveyed and are additional to this. ...
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Four years ago, AFMA installed cameras on gillnet vessels targeting sharks in the south-east fishery to monitor dolphin and sea-lion interactions. However, a consequence of doing this was that human observers were removed from these vessels. These observers collected data on interactions with dolphins and seals but also collected lengths and vertebrae, which are used to age sharks. These â€...
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By Ross Winstanley* Not content with their exclusive fishing access to every Victorian estuary, recreational fishers are now pushing for the closure of commercial fishing in the Gippsland Lakes. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Victoria’s annual 800 tonne Gippsland Lakes commercial fishery produced 80% of Australia's black bream landings, averaging about 250 tonnes. Today, the Gippslan...
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The harvest strategy in the South-East aims to maintain tiger flathead stocks at a pre-determined % of the pre-fishing, or virgin, biomass.  This is called the target reference point. The flathead stock has been above this target for many years so fishermen have enjoyed quotas (total allowable catches or TACs) designed to slightly reduce flathead stocks down to that reference point. However...
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