Reef line fishery

Fishery symbols

  • RQ (Reef Quota): Coral reef fin fish fishery

Management

Operating areas

The RQ symbol can be used only in the area defined for the east coast line fishery symbol appearing on the same licence:

Quota or effort units

The fishery is managed through:

  • total allowable commercial catch (TACC)
  • prescribed commercial catch (PCC) or competitive catch limit, and
  • individual transferable quotas (ITQs) units allocated to each licence
    • species-specific ITQ for coral trout and red throat emperor
    • combined ITQ for other species.

Licences

To operate in the fishery, you need a:

You must also hold a filleting permit to fillet quota species. Not all species can be filleted at sea.

While fishing in the reef line fishery under a L1, L2, L3 or L8 symbol, a fisher with:

  • a C1 or C2 symbol on that licence may also take crab under those symbols if they hold sufficient crab quota
  • an SM symbol on that licence may also take Spanish mackerel under that symbol if they hold sufficient Spanish mackerel quota.

Otherwise, you must not take fish in more than one commercial fishery at the same time.

Reporting and monitoring

Commercial fishers must:

Closures

Annual closures:

Two 5-day coral reef fin fish closed seasons in October and November each year.

Equipment

  • Fish can be taken using fishing lines.
  • Restrictions on boats and equipment depend on the fishery symbol you are operating under.
  • Fishers cannot fish from land (must fish from a boat) except in those fisheries (hand-harvest) that allow fishing from land, as per the Fisheries (Commercial Fisheries) Regulation 2019.

Target species

Other species include:

Size limits and form requirements