As part of the Scalefish Rules Review last year, rules for sand flathead changed for all fishers, including prohibiting the commercial take of sand flathead in state waters.
This means sand flathead is now a recreational-only species, placing the rebuild of Tasmania’s favourite recreational fish directly in the hands of recreational fishers.
Commercial take of sand flathead is not permitted in state waters. However, tiger flathead (pictured above) remain an important target species for commercial fishers and may commonly be seen being landed at wharves. Tiger flathead is a sustainable species.
State sand flathead fishery
Today
Commercial take of sand flathead in state waters is prohibited, and any that are incidentally caught must be returned to the water.
Flathead you see landed or for sale in Tasmania are likely tiger flathead, a different flathead species which is sustainable, and a key target species of Tasmania’s small Danish seine fishery.
In the past, most sand flathead caught commercially have been by the handline fishery, which generally results in good survival rates on release. Generally, only small amounts of sand flathead catch has come from the two danish seine fishers operating in Tasmania, which primarily target tiger flathead and southern school whiting.
In the past
The state commercial sand flathead fishery had a combined catch of just over 3 tonnes in 2021/22.
We know these numbers, because for decades commercial fishers have been required to provide detailed logbook reports of their catch.
From these records, we know the total catch of the state commercial fishery over the past 15 years (93 tonnes) is only half of what recreational fishers are estimated to have caught in a single year (184 tonnes in 2018).
Commercial catch outside state waters
Commonwealth fishers are only allowed to operate outside three nautical miles from shore.
They rarely catch sand flathead because they fish deep waters, and sand flathead are more typically found in shallower, inshore waters. In fact, in the last five years, the catch of sand flathead by the Commonwealth fishery only averaged 3 tonnes per year– and a lot of that catch came from mainland waters, not Tasmania.
The Commonwealth fishery is managed by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.