Operating in the east coast otter trawl fishery

Fishery symbols

• T1: Trawl fishery
• T2: Trawl fishery
• M1: Moreton Bay trawl regions
• M2: Moreton Bay trawl regions

Management

• Harvest strategies apply to each trawl region:
  • Northern trawl region
  • Central trawl region
  • Southern inshore trawl region
  • Southern offshore trawl region
  • Moreton Bay trawl region.
• The trawl fishery working group provides operational advice on the management of the east coast otter trawl fishery.

Operating areas

• Area of the T1 trawl fishery
• Area of the T2 trawl fishery
• Area of the M1 and M2 Moreton Bay trawl fishery

Effort quota system

The fishery is managed through:

• individual effort units that can only be used in the allocated trawl region
• total allowable effort cap for each trawl region.

The effort cap for each trawl region is defined in the Fisheries Declaration 2019.

The maximum vessel size is 120 hull units. The associated effort unit conversion factor is a maximum of 93 effort units.

Licences

To operate in the fishery, you need a:

• primary commercial fishing licence with with the relevant fishery symbol
• commercial fisher licence for the person in charge of fishing activities.

Reporting and monitoring

All commercial trawl fishers must:

• report trip and catch notices
• pre-trip notice
• amending notice
• catch disposal record
• 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.

T1 holders must also submit a transhipment notice.

Closures

Closures apply to different trawl regions.

Saucer scallops may be harvested from midday on 20 January to midday on 1 May in the southern offshore trawl region. See Section 110 of the Fisheries Declaration 2019.

Equipment

A primary vessel can be up to:

• 20m long for offshore trawl regions
• 14m long for Moreton Bay.

All otter trawls must have:

• bycatch reduction devices (BRDs)
• turtle excluder devices (TEDs).

Target species

Prawns

• Tiger prawns (Penaeus esculentus, P. semisulcatus or P. monodon)
• Endeavour prawns (Metapenaeus endeavouri and M. ensis)
• Red spot king prawns (Penaeus longistylus), also known as the Northern king prawn
• Banana prawns (Penaeus merguiensis)
• Eastern king prawns (Penaeus plebejus)
• Bay prawns (Metapenaeus bennettae and M. macleayi)
• Greasyback prawns (M. bennettae)
• School prawns (M. macleayi)

Moreton Bay bugs

• Moreton Bay bugs (Thenus australiensis and T. parindicus)

Squid

• Pencil squid (Photololigo spp.)
• Tiger squid or northern calamari (Sepioteuthis spp.)
• Arrow squid (Ommastrephes bartramii, Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis).

Permitted species

Operators in the east coast trawl fishery are allowed to keep and sell:

• blue swimmer crabs
• barking crayfish
• cuttlefish
• mantis shrimp
• octopuses
• pinkies
• pipefish
• red spot crabs
• Balmain bugs.

Some of these species are subject to minimum size limits and other restrictions.

No-take species

Stout whiting are not permitted to be kept as a byproduct by otter trawlers targeting prawns and scallops.