PIRSA Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy Sean Sloan said following the consideration of the latest scientific assessment and commercial catch data, PIRSA, in consultation with the Southern Zone fishery licence holders, determined that the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) will remain unchanged for the 2014-15 season, which commenced 1 September.
The Southern Zone Abalone Fishery is situated in South Australian waters from the Murray Mouth to the Victorian border.
The TACCs for the 2014–15 quota period will be 7200 kg whole weight for Greenlip Abalone and 151 500 kg whole weight for Blacklip Abalone.
Mr Sloan said that along with the TACC setting, a number of other management changes will also be implemented in 2014-15.
“These include adoption of a recommendation from the industry to introduce a new spatial management approach to ensure abalone catches are appropriately spread across the different areas of the fishery, in recognition of the different biological characteristics of abalone populations in different spatial locations across the fishery,” he said.
“This new approach will ensure all of the different individual abalone populations in these different spatial areas are fished sustainably and also allow the industry to play a key role in future management across these different areas”.
These new management measures have been implemented following research undertaken by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) on refined spatial management of abalone stocks, which was funded by the Commonwealth Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).
