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Summary:
This project arose in response to major concerns expressed by all stakeholder groups over the lack of documented information about the current status and exploitation of the eastern Torres Strait reef line fishery. These concerns were primarily driven by questions about the sustainability of current harvest rates of key reef fish species within the Torres Strait and perceived risks of over-exploitation of reef fish resources in some areas.
Commercial harvest of reef fish in the eastern Torres Strait is shared between Torres Strait Islanders and non-indigenous fishers, however, to date no formal assessment of the fishery has been conducted and no allocation strategies exist. Consequently, there was an urgent need for research into the harvest and effort characteristics of the eastern Torres Strait reef line fishery to resolve ever-increasing resource allocation and sustainable utilisation issues.
To assist in the resolution of these issues it was necessary to accurately document the commercial catch histories of both Torres Strait Islanders and non-indigenous fishers. Historical catch records exist for commercial non-indigenous fishers in the form of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and the former Queensland Fisheries Management Authority compulsory logbook program. In contrast, the commercial catch records of the Torres Strait Islanders exist in the form of various sales dockets and other disparate sources of Council and private freezer records.
In this project, therefore, we collated and reviewed historical Islander community (i.e., commercial) catch records for the eastern Torres Strait reef line fishery. Islander commercial harvest and effort information were derived from individual catch and transhipment records that were voluntarily provided by the Council freezer operators on each of the main reef line fishing communities of Darnley (Erub), Murray (Mer) and Yorke (Masig) Islands. Annual reported community harvest of reef fish from these islands, based on individual catch records, reached almost 29 tonnes in 2002 from 1064 days of fishing effort and 111 individual fishers; albeit given significant issues with data completeness and reliability. Overall patterns of harvest, effort and species composition in the fishery also varied among islands, years and months. Coral trout and other demersal finfish were the main species harvested by Islander fishers on Murray and Darnley Islands, while mackerel dominated the harvest of fishers on Yorke Island.
Knowledge of historical commercial fishing patterns of the Torres Strait Islanders will enable Islanders and the relevant management agencies to approach future management decisions from a more informed basis, particularly those concerning resource allocation and sustainable harvesting strategies. However, to ensure the collection of an on-going time series of reliable and informative catch and effort data for the fishery, measures should be considered to implement a more structured and rigorous reporting system for the Islander harvest in the future. Similarly, attempts should be made to ensure the collation of historical catch records from the remaining Council and private freezer operators not gathered in this project. This would then enable the historical fishing patterns in community harvest rates for all Torres Strait fisheries to be evaluated, not just for the reef line fishery, and more importantly, ensure the preservation of this invaluable information.
Download a complete copy of the report (Adobe Acrobat file 453KB).
For a hard copy of the report contact CRC Reef on info@crcreef.com.
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