In 2024, The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania produced a set of Development Guidelines for a New Tasmanian Sardine Fishery. The guidelines are based on four principles designed to ensure Tasmania and the environment would have long-term benefit from a new fishery, and include strategies surrounding ecosystem sustainability, governance, economic return, and benefits to Tasmanians.
To summarise, Tasmanians have a rare opportunity to develop a sustainable, profitable, nutritious and local commercial sardine fishery together that would:
- Be responsibly managed from its onset, based on rigorous ongoing science including baseline data of the predominantly unfished population to regularly monitor against and control harvest
- Bring these local and versatile delicacies to all Tasmanians through seafood markets, sellers and restaurants, encouraging the use of this sustainable and renewable source of protein
- Use methods of fishing that are low-impact. Purse seine netting is highly selective, trawl-free, has minimal bycatch and no contact with the seafloor
- Provide regional employment opportunities and economic benefits to Tasmanians through the catching, processing and selling of sardines, under a cost recovery model
- Be a great source of bait for recreational fishers and a local, renewable protein source for a range of products.
The Sardine Development Guidelines key principles of Environmental Sustainability, Best Practice Governance, Economic Return, and Benefits to Tasmanians.