Fishing and Fisheries
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Fishing boat
Photo: CRC Reef |
Fishing is the largest harvesting activity in the Great Barrier Reef
World Heritage Area. It includes the commercial trawl fishery, reef line fishing,
inshore fin fish fishery and crabbing as well as harvesting of corals, sea cucumbers,
trochus shells and aquarium fishes. Recreational fishing is also an important activity with almost 25,000
privately registered boats fishing in the Great Barrier Reef region each
year and participating in most of the various fisheries.
Effective management of these activities depends on scientific information
about the fisheries resources and an understanding of the fishing community.
CRC Reef's Fishing and Fisheries Project aims to provide information
for management of key fish stocks in reef and inshore areas of the Great
Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. It also aims to describe the people
that fish in the GBRWHA and synthesise this information using computer
models to evaluate alternative management strategies as well as their
social and economic impacts and effects on the fishery and fish stocks.
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Coral trout
Photo: GBRMPA |
Previously, the Fishing and Fisheries Project focused its research on
the Great Barrier Reef line fishery, but is now broadening its work to
include both reef and inshore fisheries. By value-adding to the Queensland
Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries ongoing research about
mud crabs and prawn fisheries, the Fishing and Fisheries Project will
diversify its research to look at estuary and inshore fishing. However,
reef line fishing will continue to be the major focus of the Fishing and
Fisheries Project with the Effects of Line Fishing
(ELF) Project being the largest research project being conducted.
The Fishing and Fisheries Project is a collaborative endeavour supported
by the Fisheries Research and Development
Corporation and The Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park Authority. The magnitude and scope of the research
has also led to widespread collaboration with a number of industry, research
and management groups.
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