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:

Reporting and monitoring

Commercial fishers must:

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

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.