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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-11-28 Daily Xml
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Fishing Allocations

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister inform the chamber about the allocation review process and the progression of kingfish to a stage 2 review?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for his question and his keen interest in everything to do with fishing. The Allocation Review Committee (ARC) was established in 2023 to undertake full assessments of allocations referred to the committee by the allocation working group, which is made of representatives of each of the fishing sectors with an allocated share of one or more of the identified species being reviewed and shared by the PIRSA executive director of fisheries and aquaculture.

The allocation working group met on 4 July this year to review initial assessments for 10 identified species, with recommendations made on four species to progress to a full stage 2 review by the ARC. Yellowtail kingfish was considered by the working group at that time with a recommendation that the species not proceed to a stage 2 review due to the data that was available at the time not being robust enough for consideration, with concerns about the certainty of the average catch weight of recreationally caught kingfish leading to a consideration that it was not possible to accurately convert the recreational catch into the tonnage or catch weight which could then be considered against the weight catch of the commercial sector.

Yellowtail kingfish is currently allocated at 98.88 per cent for the recreational sector; 1 per cent for Aboriginal traditional fishing; and 0.12 per cent for the commercial sector. It is a hugely important game fish for many anglers who value catching one of these huge and difficult-to-catch fish. The species has a passionate following and, as such, the catch of kingfish commercially is certainly closely watched by the recreational sectors.

It's also an important species for some regional coastal communities known to be hotspots for kingfish, such as Port Augusta, where an influx of people travelling and contributing to regional economies each kingfish season, generally over the warmer months, is highly valued by those regional communities.

Recently, RecFish SA made PIRSA aware of additional data on recreationally caught kingfish from the New South Wales Game Fish Tagging Program which PIRSA was able to secure from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries earlier this month. The data included thousands of counts of kingfish that had been tagged and recaptured over several years, including fish caught here in South Australia. PIRSA considered this information was more reliable in calculating an average individual weight of kingfish caught by the recreational sector for the purpose of the allocation assessment.

With the new data, PIRSA extrapolated that the average weight of recreationally caught kingfish was lower than previously understood, and with this the commercial sector had potentially breached its proportional share over a five-year period, and thus it has now been recommended to me that kingfish move to a full stage 2 allocation review, which I have approved.

The ARC will be meeting in December to consider several species, including potential recreational breaches of King George whiting and black bream, and potential commercial breaches of southern garfish, sand crab, and, as I have explained, yellowtail kingfish. The ARC has various options available to it upon reviewing species referred to it, including recommending to me as minister actions to maintain the sector within its catch share or to change the allocations, dependent on any change in value for that species.

The ARC is an important advisory group in assisting government to manage sectors within their allocations, which of course is incredibly important in maintaining sustainability across all our fisheries. I thank everyone involved in this important work.

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