Queensland's East Coast Trawl Fishery

The trawl fishery is Queensland’s largest commercial fishery. The main targets are prawns, scallops and bugs although about 60 species of molluscs, crustaceans and finfish are retained as commercial byproduct.

The East Coast Trawl Fishery extends from the Cape York along the east coast to the border of NSW and Queensland. Most of the catch is taken with otter trawl (about 95 per cent of the trawl harvest) with beam trawl used to take about 5 per cent of the harvest.

Trawlers Photo by CRC Reef

It is estimated that less than 15 per cent of Queensland coastal waters can be trawled using otter trawl gear because most of the seabed is too rough. In addition, the fishing area is restricted with 66 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park closed to trawling, and other areas permanently closed to trawling to protect nurseries or juveniles and avoid bycatch (Kerrigan, Gaddes, Norris, 2004).

The number of vessels in the trawl fleet has declined from about 1400 licensed operators in the early 1980s to 520 in May 2004. The introduction of a Management Plan for the East Coast Trawl Fishery in 1999, and in particular, the revision of this plan in 2000, had a significant impact on the reduction of effort in the fishery. Through a Commonwealth and Queensland Government jointly funded structural adjustment scheme and a voluntary surrender of effort units by industry, more than 15% of effort was removed from the fishery in early 2001. These reductions in effort have assisted greatly in pursuing the sustainable management of the fishery.

Most wild caught prawns are exported to Asian markets. The United States (US) stopped importing prawns from countries that did not use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in 1996. TEDs are now compulsory on all trawlers in Queensland. In 2004, the US market re-opened to Australian wild-caught prawns.

An assessment of the performance of the trawl fishery in 2003 against its objectives under the Fisheries (East Coast Trawl) Management Plan is available on the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries website. An audit on the management of the Queensland east coast Trawl Fishery in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is also available on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) website.

Tiger and endeavour prawn stocks in north Queensland are regarded as ‘fully exploited’ (Kerrigan, Gaddes, Norris, 2004) with stocks of eastern king, tiger and endeavour prawns considered close to the maximum sustainable yield.

There are also concerns about the level of bycatch and the impact of trawling on the seabed.

In 2003, there were 410 trawlers operating in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) for a total of 44,790 days that caught 6,426 tonnes of product worth $80.41m. An additional 29,263 days were spent trawling outside the GBRWHA along the east coast of Queensland to catch an additional 2,921 tonnes of product worth $30.44m. Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

The Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries (DPI&F) manages the trawl fishery in Queensland waters under the Fisheries Act 1994 and in Commonwealth waters adjacent to the Queensland coast under an arrangement in Part 5 of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (Commonwealth).

A Management Plan for the East Coast Trawl Fishery was developed in 1999. Following a major revision in late 2000, there have been continual ammendments to the Trawl Plan to fine-tune current managment arrangements. The Plan has reduced and capped effort in the fishery (both the numbers of fishing days and licences have declined). There is also a cap on the total number of fishing days that can be used in the GBRWHA in any year. The fleet behaviour and general fishing pattern is monitored by a satellite Vessel Monitoring System (VMS).

About 70% of the fishery operates within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Therefore, the fishery comes under the jurisdiction of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The GBRMPA and DPI&F co-operate to ensure that the fishery in the Marine Park operates in a way that allows the GBRMPA to achieve its statutory obligation and goal of the ‘protection, wise use, understanding and enjoyment’ of the resources of the GBRMP. Trawling is only permitted in the General Use (light blue) Zones of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is not permitted in Marine National Park (green), Preservation (pink), Scientific Research (orange), Buffer (olive green), Conservation Park (yellow) or Habitat Protection (dark blue) Zones of the Marine Park.

Management of Queensland’s East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery was assessed in 2004 by the Australian Government Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). While the DEH considered that the "fishery was relatively well managed", the Department identified several issues "that must be managed to ensure their impacts are minimised." In particular, the DEH made 18 recommendations to address concerns about the fishery, including harvest of eastern king prawn and tiger/endeavour stocks (which were considered to be close to the Maximum Sustainable Yield) and about the bycatch caught in trawl nets and the impact of trawling on life on the seabed.

As part of the assessment of the fishery, the Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries (DPI&F) submitted a report in 2002 about the environmental sustainability of the East Coast trawl fishery. Separate from the DEH assesssment, a review of effort was also undertaken by DPI&F in September 2004 as part of the legislative requirement under the Trawl Plan (Kerrigan, Gaddes, Norris, 2004). An audit on the management of the Queensland east coast Trawl Fishery in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was also undertaken in 2003 by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The audit report by GBRMPA also provided a basis for the DEH assessment process and both agencies co-operated in the development of recommendations for the fishery.

Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) and Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs) are compulsory in all otter trawl nets of vessels fishing in the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery. BRDs are required to be used in all beam trawl nets of vessels fishing in the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery.

The use of TEDs has reduced the catch of endangered and protected sea turtle species in the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery by 95 per cent as specified in the Trawl Plan. It has also significantly reduced the bycatch of large organisms such as sharks, rays and sponges. The use of BRDs is also reducing unwanted bycatch in trawl nets. The degree of bycatch reduction varies with location, BRD design and fishing vessel. Increasingly, hoppers are being adopted on larger trawlers, which assist in the survival of discarded bycatch.

Tiger prawns

Eastern king prawns

Northern king prawns

Scallops

Commercial trawl fishery in Queensland. (DPI&F website).

Huber D. 2003. Audit of the management of the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, Australia.

Kenyon R, Turnbull C, Smit N. 2004. Prawns. In: National Oceans Office. Description of key species groups in the Northern Planning Area. National Oceans Office, Hobart, Australia.

Kerrigan B, Gaddes S. Norris W. 2004. Review of sustainability of fishing effort in the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery. Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. Brisbane, Australia.

Williams LE. (ed). 2002. Queensland’s fisheries resources. Current condition and trends 1988-2000. Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.

Zeller B. 2002. Ecological assessment of the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.