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Healthy oceans: cared for, understood and used wisely for the benefit of all, now and in the future Healthy oceans: cared for, understood and used wisely for the

National Oceans Office

Northern Marine AtlasFisheries Uses and Social Indicators in Australia’s Marine Jurisdiction

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Title PageNorthern Marine Atlas – Fisheries Uses and Social

Indicators in Australia’s Marine Jurisdiction

Copyright © Department of the Environment

and Heritage - National Oceans Office, Fisheries

Research and Development Corporation, and

Bureau of Rural Sciences 2005

Disclaimer

This Atlas was produced by the National Oceans

Office with maps and information provided by the

Bureau of Rural Sciences. The views expressed in

this document are not necessarily those of the

Australian Government. The Commonwealth does

not accept responsibility for the contents of this

document.

Sourcing

Copies of this publication are available from:

National Oceans Office

Department of the Environment and Heritage

Level 1, 80 Elizabeth St, Hobart

GPO Box 2139 Hobart TAS 7001

Tel: +61 3 6221 5000

Fax: +61 3 6221 5050

www.oceans.gov.au

For further information about this document,

contact the Public Affairs Officer,

Tel: +61 3 6221 5000

Reproduction

Information in this report may be reproduced in

whole or in part for study or training purposes,

subject to the inclusion of acknowledgement of

the Source and provided no commercial usage

or sale of the material occurs. Reproduction for

purposes other than those given above requires

written permission from the National Oceans

Office. Requests for permission should be addressed

to the Public Affairs Officer, National Oceans

Office, GPO Box 2139, Hobart TAS 7001.

Credits

Design and layout: design@naughtee.com

Printing: PML

Photo credits:

Cover; tiger prawn © CSIRO, NPF trawlers ©

AFMA, fishing lure © NOO. Inside pages; tropical

rock lobster detail © CSIRO, bottom right inset

(odd pages); banana prawn © AFMA, bottom right

inset (even pages); Cape York wetland © NOO,

page 1; NPF trawlers © AFMA, page 2; fishing for

barramundi © NOO, page 3; tropical rock lobster

© CSIRO, recreational fishing © GBRMPA, page

5; rods and lure © NOO, page 9; southern gulf

coastline © NOO, page 11; recreational fishing at

Karumba © NOO, page 12; southern gulf beach ©

NOO, page 37; mackerel © GBRMPA, page 52.

Published by the Department of the Environment

and Heritage - National Oceans Office.

State Library Reference

Northern Marine Atlas

Fisheries Uses and Social Indicators

in Australia’s Marine Jurisdiction

ISBN 1-877043-58-3

Title Page

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ForewordAustralia has one of the world’s largest maritime jurisdictions. This vast marine territory offers great opportunities as well as important responsibilities. If we are to manage our rich resources effectively and sustainably into the future, we need an understanding of how we use them today.

The National Marine Atlas project is a step forward in gaining this understanding. The National Atlas and its regional companion documents bring together for the first time information from a wide range of sources about the use of our ocean territory.

One of these regional documents, the Northern Marine Atlas – Non-Fisheries Uses in Australia’s Marine Jurisdiction was released in 2004. It covers the Northern Planning Area, including the eastern Arafura Sea, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Torres Strait, and contains information as diverse as shipping routes, offshore petroleum and gas leases and platforms, shipwrecks and bioprospecting sites.

This atlas, the Northern Marine Atlas - Fisheries Uses and Social Indicators in Australia’s Marine Jurisdiction is produced as a companion to the northern non-fisheries atlas.

The maps and information in this Atlas are part of the National Atlas of Fishing and Coastal Communities; being prepared by the Bureau of Rural Sciences — sponsored by the National Oceans Office and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. The National Atlas includes a hardcopy volume summarising marine fishing activity along with a variety of relevant social and economic indicators for coastal communities around Australia. A significantly greater volume of material will be made available online through the Bureau of Rural Sciences during 2005.

ContentsForeword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Contents Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Chapter I

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2

Description of Australian Marine Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 3

The Northern Planning Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1A. Northern Planning Area Satellite Overview . 7

1B. Northern Planning Area Bathymetry . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 4

Fisheries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Fisheries Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2. Commonwealth Prawn Trawl Fisheries . . . . . . 13

3. Commonwealth Torres Strait Fisheries . . . . . . 15

4. NT and Qld Fisheries Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5. NT and Qld Line Fisheries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

6. NT and Qld Net Fisheries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

7. NT Gillnet Fishery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

8. NT and Qld Trap and Pot Fisheries . . . . . . . 25

9. NT and Qld Otter Trawl Fisheries . . . . . . . . . . 27

10. NT Bait Fishery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

11. NT Dive and Hand Collection Fishery . . . . . 31

12. Recreational Fishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

13. Indigenous Fishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 5

Social Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Social Indicator Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

14. Total population, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

15. Total dependency ratio, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

16. Indigenous persons, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

17. Annual average population growth, 1996-2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

18. Change in median age, 1996-2001 . . . . . . . . . 47

19. Change in labour force participation, 1991-2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

20. Employment in aquaculture, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . 49

21. Employment in commercial fishing, 2001 .. 50

22. Employment in the consolidated fish industry, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Foreword