Net fishery licensing and management areas

If you participate in commercial net fishing, it's important that you are aware of licensing arrangements and management areas.

Licensing

The following licensing arrangements apply to Queensland's commercial net fisheries:

• The person in charge of a commercial fishing operation must hold a commercial fisher licence.
• To operate in the fishery, a fisher must have a primary commercial fishing licence.
• The primary commercial fishing licence must be officially endorsed for the particular fishery (i.e. marked with the symbol that identifies the fishery).

No new licences are issued for existing fisheries. To enter a net fishery, you must first obtain the correct licence and fishery symbols from an existing licence holder. Licences and quota can be transferred from person to person, and fishery symbols can be transferred from one licence to another licence.

Management areas

Net fisheries operate along the entire Queensland coastline as far out as the Queensland east coast offshore constitutional settlement boundary, except for areas closed to net fishing under fisheries and other legislation.

East coast inshore fishery

The east coast inshore fishery extends across all tidal waters along Queensland’s east coast, eastward of longitude 142°31'49"E. It generally includes:

• a barramundi river and nearshore component
• an offshore shark and grey mackerel component
• an ocean beach mullet component
• a general estuarine component.

The fishery is split into 5 management regions.

Gulf of Carpentaria inshore fishery

The Gulf of Carpentaria inshore fishery extends from the Queensland–Northern Territory border to the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula. This fishery includes:

• a component that primarily targets river and near shore species such as barramundi and threadfins up to 7 nautical miles from the coast
• a component that primarily targets species such as shark and grey mackerel more than 7 nautical miles from the coast.

Also consider...

• Read the fisheries legislation for more information about licensing and management areas.