Overview
The commercial scalefish fishery is a multi-species and multi-gear fishery predominantly made up of small owner operators.
Vessels vary in size and type and different fishing gears are used. Examples include gillnets, hook and line, longlines, spears, drop lines, squid jigs, automatic squid jig machines, fish traps, purse seine nets, beach seine nets, dipnets, octopus pots and Danish seine.
Some of the species commercially targeted are
banded morwong,
southern calamari,
octopus,
tiger flathead,
school whiting,
southern garfish,
wrasse,
Gould's squid,
bastard trumpeter,
blue warehou, silver warehou,
flounder,
silver trevally,
striped trumpeter and
small pelagic species.
Managing the fishery
The scalefish fishery is controlled through capped licence numbers, closed seasons and gear restrictions. There are also minimum and maximum size limits and trip limits. Banded morwong on the East Coast are controlled by a quota management system. Catch limits are in place for recreational fishers
Commercial licences
To catch and sell scalefish species from Tasmanian waters, fishers require specific scalefish licences. The platform for a commercial scalefish licence package is a fishing licence (vessel).
For information about commercial scalefish licence types and number, please see the document below.