Marine aquarium fishery
Fishery symbols
- A1: Aquarium fish fishery
- A2: Aquarium fish fishery
Management
Operating area
Licences
To operate in the fishery, you need a:
- primary commercial fishing licence with an A1 fishery symbol
- commercial fisher licence for the person in charge of fishing activities.
Up to 3 divers can operate under a licence at any one time.
A1 and D (coral) symbols can be fished together on the same fishing trip provided that both symbols are on the same primary commercial fishing licence.
Limited entry
The fishery has limited entry:
- 45 licences with A1 symbol
- Four licences with A2 symbol.
In order to protect stocks in the specific areas from localised depletion, regions are defined as special management areas with limited access:
- Cairns area (16 licences)
- Whitsundays area (3 licences)
- Keppel area (8 licences)
- Sunshine Coast area (8 licences)
- Moreton Bay area (11 licences).
Supply public aquariums
Operators who supply public aquariums must also hold a general fisheries permit to:
- use certain equipment
- outside prescribed size limits or species restrictions.
Reporting and monitoring
Commercial fishers must:
- report trip and catch notices
- complete daily logbooks
- keep sale dockets
- have vessel tracking on their boats
- comply with state marine park and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park zoning rules.
Closures
- Five-day closures apply around the new moon periods in October and November of each year.
Equipment
- One primary boat.
- One tender boat only.
Target species
- Damselfish (family Pomacentridae)
- Butterflyfish and bannerfish (family Chaetodontidae)
- Angelfish (family Pomacanthidae)
- Wrasses (family Labridae)
- Surgeonfish (family Acanthuridae)
- Gobies (family Gobiidae)
Size and take limits
- Size limits exist for certain species.
- Fish can only be sold for use as aquarium fish or broodstock.
- Fish must not be taken for human consumption.