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Fisheries Maps2. Commonwealth Prawn Trawl Fisheries

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3. Commonwealth Torres Strait Fisheries . . . . . 16

4. NT and Qld Fisheries Summary

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5. NT and Qld Line Fisheries

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6. NT and Qld Net Fisheries

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

7. NT Gillnet Fishery

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

8. NT and Qld Trap and Pot Fisheries

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

9. NT and Qld Otter Trawl Fisheries

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

10. NT Bait Fishery

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

11. NT Dive and Hand Collection Fishery

a. Catch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

b. GVP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

12. Recreational Fishing

a. Catch in numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

b. Catch composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

13. Indigenous Fishing

a. Catch in numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

b. Catch composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

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Chapter 4

FisheriesIntroduction

The Northern Planning Area is characterised by numerous seasonal river systems, linked to extensive estuarine and mangrove areas, and quite shallow and relatively protected seas beyond (Map 1A and Map 1B). Many of the recreationally and commercially exploited species such as prawn, mud crab and barramundi are linked, at least at some point in their lifecycles, to the estuarine environment. The Northern Planning Area also contains rocky reef and coral reef ecosystems that support valuable reef fish, rock lobster and invertebrate fisheries. From an economic perspective, the most important commercial fisheries in the Northern Planning Area are for prawns, rock lobster, sharks, barramundi, mud crab and Spanish mackerel. The recreational and charter boat sectors focus on sport fishes – in particular barramundi, threadfin salmon, queenfish, trevally and reef fishes. The Indigenous sector also targets finfish, such as barramundi and other coastal and estuarine fish, and also has a significant take of crabs and molluscs.

Commercial Fishing

The Atlas includes 19 commercial fishing maps

(Map 2A through to Map 11B), comprising

summaries for the Northern Planning Area

of different fishing methods such as net,

line and trawl. These methods are described

in Table 1. There are other fisheries, whose

management areas extend into the Area, that

are not displayed in this atlas due to the

low level of fishing actually occurring.

For each fishing method class the Atlas shows

mean annual catch and mean annual Gross Value

of Product (GVP), mapped against statistical

reporting grids, for the period 1996-2002. GVP for

a fishery equates to the ‘beach price’ of the fish,

which is the price paid for the fish at the point

of unloading the catch, and excludes any cost

related to transporting or marketing the fish.

TrawlOtter trawl, prawn trawl, fish trawl, midwater trawl, Danish seine.

LineCasting, trolling, longline, pole,dropline, handline, crab hook, fly fishing, float line, jig, rod and reel.

Dive/HandDiving, hand harvest, hookah, spear, spear gun.

Trap/PotFish trap, freshwater pot, flat trap, mobil traps, crab pots.

Net

Cast net, purse seine, beach seine, scoop net, barrier fence, drag net, push net, skimmer net, landing net, hand net, liftnet, dip net, throw net, bottom gillnet, drift gillnet, set gillnet.

Table 1: Fishing method classes

Commonwealth Fisheries

The Australian Government, through the Australian

Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), is

responsible for the management of several fisheries

that operate within the Northern Planning Area.

Commonwealth fisheries depicted in this Atlas

include the Northern Prawn Fishery and several

Torres Strait Fisheries. Map 2 summarises the

catch (A) and GVP (B) of the Northern Prawn

Fishery and the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery.

Descriptive information is provided for several of

the Torres Strait fisheries (Map 3) as there is

insufficient spatial information to allow detailed

mapping of these fisheries. Further information on

fisheries status and historical catches of fisheries

managed by the Australian Government is available

from the Bureau of Rural Sciences (www.brs.

gov.au) and the Australian Fisheries Management

Authority (www.afma.gov.au).

State Fisheries

The Queensland and Northern Territory

Governments are responsible for the management

of several fisheries that operate within the

Northern Planning Area. Map 4 summarises all of

the Queensland and Northern Territory fisheries.

Maps 5 to 11 comprise summaries of different

fishing method sectors. In each case both catch

(A) and GVP (B) are mapped.

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State/Territory fisheries that are depicted in this

Atlas include:

Queensland Fisheries

• Commercial Crab Fishery

• Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Fin Fish Fishery

• Line Fishery (multiple hook—Queensland

Fisheries Joint Authority)

• Line Fishery (Queensland Fisheries Joint

Authority No. 1)

• Line Fishery (Queensland Fisheries Joint

Authority No. 2)

Northern Territory Fisheries

• Aquarium Fish Fishery

• Barramundi Fishery

• Coastal Line Fishery

• Coastal Net Fishery

• Demersal Fishery

• Finfish Trawl Fishery

• Mud Crab Fishery

• Shark Fishery

• Spanish Mackerel Fishery

• Trepang Fishery

Further information about fisheries status and

historical catches of these fisheries are available

from the Queensland Department of Primary

Industries and Fisheries (http://www.dpi.qld.

gov.au/fishweb) and Northern Territory Fisheries

– Department of Business, Industry and Resource

Development (www.fisheries.nt.gov.au).

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Indigenous and Recreational Fishing

There are very significant recreational and

Indigenous fisheries operating throughout the

Northern Planning Area. The quantitative

information presented in Map 12A to Map

13B are from the National Recreational and

Indigenous Fishing Survey (http://www.affa.gov.

au/recfishsurvey). The Survey was undertaken by

all jurisdictions for the period May 2000 through

April 2001 and the results are estimates of the

total numbers of fish taken over that period.

The statistical reporting areas are quite variable

in shape and size, and comprise areas on land

for freshwater activity and areas in the ocean

for saltwater activity. The ocean reporting areas

have been, somewhat arbitrarily, tapered off at

a distance of 50 nautical miles from the nearest

land. Most activity is likely to be close to land

however there will be exceptions to this. Data

were absent for some of the reporting areas

(particularly for the Indigenous survey) and

these have been coloured grey.

Reading the maps

• Colour shading is used to indicate areas of

higher or lower catch or value. More intense

and deeper colours indicate higher values and

lighter colours indicate lower values. Blue

shading always refers to fishing catch, green

shading always refers to GVP.

• It should be noted that, while a section of

ocean may be shaded to represent a level

of fishing, this does not mean activity is

equally dispersed across the ocean or seabed.

In most cases fishing is quite patchy in

its distribution so, particularly with large

statistical areas, caution is required when

interpreting maps.

• Most jurisdictions have a ‘five boat rule’

confidentiality requirement, with respect to

fishery logbook data. The rule precludes the

presentation of data that represents less than

five vessels or licensees. Statistical areas

with less than five boats are either removed

completely or mapped as masked data with

no indication of the magnitude.

• Some statistical grids cross jurisdictional

boundaries and may overlap areas that are

closed to fishing.

Chapter 4