While over half of Tasmania’s coastal species remain sustainable, unsustainable levels of fishing have depleted stocks of the most popular commercial and recreational scalefish species.
The University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) has released its evaluation of the state’s key fishery species in the Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery Assessment for 2022/23.
Using new commercial and recreational catch data from the 2022/23 season, stocks from 22 different species were assessed as sustainable, depleting, depleted or recovering.
“The results reveal more than half of the fisheries species assessed remained healthy with 11 species classified as sustainable,” lead author and IMAS research fellow Dr Ruth Sharples said.
“But there is high fishing pressure on the most popular species including Sand Flathead, Southern Calamari and Striped Trumpeter.”
To read the full article, click here: Scalefish sustainability remains high but popular species are in decline | University of Tasmania
