Marine aquarium fishery

Fishery symbols

• A1: Aquarium fish fishery
• A2: Aquarium fish fishery

Management

• Harvest strategy
• Working group

Operating area

• Area of the A1 aquarium fishery
• Area of the A2 aquarium fishery

Licences

To operate in the fishery, you need a:

• primary commercial fishing licence with an A1 fishery symbol
• commercial fisher licence for the person in charge of fishing activities.

Up to 3 divers can operate under a licence at any one time.

A1 and D (coral) symbols can be fished together on the same fishing trip provided that both symbols are on the same primary commercial fishing licence.

Limited entry

The fishery has limited entry:

• 45 licences with A1 symbol
• Four licences with A2 symbol.

In order to protect stocks in the specific areas from localised depletion, regions are defined as special management areas with limited access:

• Cairns area (16 licences)
• Whitsundays area (3 licences)
• Keppel area (8 licences)
• Sunshine Coast area (8 licences)
• Moreton Bay area (11 licences).

Supply public aquariums

Operators who supply public aquariums must also hold a general fisheries permit to:

• use certain equipment
• outside prescribed size limits or species restrictions.

Reporting and monitoring

Commercial fishers must:

• report trip and catch notices
• pre-trip notice
• amending 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

• Five-day closures apply around the new moon periods in October and November of each year.

Equipment

• One primary boat.
• One tender boat only.

Target species

• Damselfish (family Pomacentridae)
• Butterflyfish and bannerfish (family Chaetodontidae)
• Angelfish (family Pomacanthidae)
• Wrasses (family Labridae)
• Surgeonfish (family Acanthuridae)
• Gobies (family Gobiidae)

Size and take limits

• Size limits exist for certain species.
• Fish can only be sold for use as aquarium fish or broodstock.
• Fish must not be taken for human consumption.