Sustainable Fishing

Fishing is the largest harvesting activity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. It includes commercial trawling, reef line fishing, inshore fish netting and crabbing as well as harvesting of corals, bêche-de-mer, trochus shells and aquarium fishes.
Recreational fishing is also an important activity with about 56,000 privately registered boats fishing in the Great Barrier Reef region.
The fish of the Great Barrier Reef are important to commercial and recreational fishers, to Indigenous people to maintain their cultural heritage, and to tourists. Effective management of these activities depends on scientific information about the fisheries resources and an understanding of the fishing community.

A great deal of research is being focused on understanding the biology of fish species fished in the commercial reef line fishery, the impact of fishing on them and the reef, and to ensure that the reef line fishery is sustainable. The research is helping managers to balance the needs of users while maintaining the reef fish stocks and the reef ecosystem for future generations.

Managing fishing on the Great Barrier Reef

The day-to-day management of all fish stocks in waters adjacent to Queensland’s east coast lies with the Queensland Fisheries Service (QFS) of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, except for fisheries in the Coral Sea, which are managed by the Commonwealth.

Fishing within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is a multiple-use park and World Heritage Area, is also regulated by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The GBRMPA allows and manages reasonable commercial and recreational uses in the park and, at the same time, protects and conserves the biodiversity of the region. The GBRMPA uses several tools to manage the park including a system of zones that were established under Australian Commonwealth law to protect critical habitats as well as manage human use in the park. In some zones, fishing and other extractive activities are not permitted. In 2003, about 24% of coral reef habitats (where most reef fish are caught) are included in these zones, representing about 4% of the total area of the park. The GBRMPA has started a process that will increase the area and number of these marine sanctuaries to ensure that the ecological processes and systems of the Great Barr Reef are maintained. While closures to fishing are designed to protect biodiversity rather than being a fishery management tool, they do protect, for example, fish spawning aggregations.

Commonwealth legislation, the Environment Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), prescribes that all fisheries must be managed in a manner consistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable fisheries management as specified in the Commonwealth Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries. Currently the Sustainable Fisheries Section of Environment Australia is assessing the environmental performance of some of the fisheries in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Researchers of the Cooperative Research Centre for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (CRC Reef) in Townsville, Australia have produced a number of Technical reports about fishing and fisheries:

CRC Reef Technical Report 48 Bridging the Gap: A workshop linking student research with fisheries stakeholders.
CRC Reef Technical Report 40 The sustainability of Queensland's coral harvest fishery
CRC Reef Technical Report 38A guide to the fishers of Queensland. Part C: TRC - analysis and social profiles of Queensland's charter fishing industry.
CRC Reef Technical Report 37 A guide to the fishers of Queensland. Part B: TRC - analysis and social profiles of Queensland's harvest industry.
CRC Reef Technical Report 36A guide to the fishers of Queensland. Part A: TRC - analysis and social profiles of Queensland's commercial fishing industry.
CRC Reef Technical Report 31Defining the reproductive biology of a large serranid: Plectropomus leopardus.
CRC Reef Technical Report 26 Fishes of the Yongala historic shipwreck
CRC Reef Technical Report 7 Design of experimental investigations of the effects of line and spear fishing on the Great Barrier Reef
CRC Reef Technical Report 6 Evaluation of sampling methods for reef fish populations of commercial and recreational interest
CRC Reef Technical Report 5 Impact of tourist pontoons on fish assemblages on the Great Barrier Reef
CRC Reef Technical Report 3A long-term study on population structure of the Coral Trout Plectropomus leopardus on reefs open and closed to fishing in the central Great Barrier Reef