Sea cucumber fishery
The sea cucumber fishery is also referred to as the beche-de-mer fishery (east coast).
Fishery symbol
- B1: Beche-de-mer fishery (east coast)
Management
Operating area
Quota and effort
The fishery is managed through:
- limited entry—only 18 B1 licences are available
- total allowable commercial catch
- individual transferable quotas (ITQs) units allocated to each licence
- species-based catch limits.
Fisheries Queensland monitors other species by performance measurement systems.
The fishery area is managed under a rotational harvest arrangement (RHA) in a 3-year cycle.
The reefs are divided into 158 zones:
- 52 zones in year 1
- 54 zones in year 2
- 52 zones in year 3.
A maximum of 18 days diving allowed per zone, per year.
Licences
To operate in the fishery, you need a:
- primary commercial fishing licence with a B1 fishery symbol
- up to 6 people can operate under a licence at any one time
- commercial fisher licence for the person in charge of fishing activities.
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
- Waters south of latitude 20º south (near Bowen).
- Waters west of longitude 142º31'49'' east (Gulf waters).
Equipment
- One primary boat.
- Up to 4 tender boats.
Target species
- Black teatfish (Holothuria whitmaei)
- White teatfish (Holothuria fuscogilva)
- Burrowing blackfish (Actinopyga spinea)
Size or take limits
- Minimum size limits are in place for 13 species as a licence condition.
- Quota is in place for black teatfish, white teatfish and other species.