East coast Spanish mackerel fishery

Fishery symbols

• SM: Spanish mackerel fishery

Management

• Working group
• Harvest strategy

Operating area

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

• Area of the L1 line fishery
• Area of the L2 line fishery
• Area of the L3 line fishery
• Area of the L8 line fishery

Quota

The fishery is a quota-managed fishery:

• total allowable commercial catch
• individual transferable quotas (ITQs) units allocated to each licence.

Licences and permits

To operate in the fishery, you need a:

• primary commercial fishing licence with
• an SM symbol
• and
• an L1, L2, L3 or L8 symbol
• commercial fisher licence for the person in charge of fishing activities.

A filleting permit is required to fillet this species.

While fishing in the rocky reef 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
• a SM symbol on that licence – may also take Spanish mackerel under that symbol if they hold sufficient Spanish mackerel quota
• a RQ symbol on that licence – may also take reef line quota species if they hold sufficient quota of the relevant quota category.

Otherwise, you must not take fish in more than 1 commercial fishery at the same time.

Reporting and monitoring

Commercial fishers must:

• report trip and catch notices
• pre-trip notice
• amending notice
• transhipment notice
• prior notice
• weight notice
• catch disposal record
• retained fish notice
• emergency notice
• complete daily logbooks
• keep sale dockets
• have vessel tracking on their boats
• comply with state marine park and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park zoning rules.

Closures

• Annual closed seasons apply

Equipment

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

Target species

• Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson)