The Corner Inlet Fishery
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The Corner Inlet Fishery Information to inform assessment of the Victorian Corner Inlet Fishery under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 © The State of Victoria Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries logo. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en Accessibility If you would like to receive this publication in an alternative format, please contact the Customer Service Centre at 136 186 or [email protected] or the National Relay Service on 133 677 or www.relayservice.com.au . Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 Description of the fishery ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Target species ................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Prohibited species .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Fishing area .................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Fishing methods ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Cornet Inlet fishery management arrangements ........................................................................................................... 5 Catch Data ..................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Fisheries management ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Status of key stocks .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Stock assessments .......................................................................................................................................................... 7 King George whiting ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Rock flathead ................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Southern garfish ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Australian salmon .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 Silver trevally .................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Southern calamari .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 Protected species ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Interactions with protected species and reduction strategies ....................................................................................... 9 Ecosystem effects including the effects of fishing ....................................................................................................... 9 Ecological risk assessments ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Fishery impacts on the ecosystem................................................................................................................................ 10 External (non-fishing) impacts on the ecosystem and critical fish habitats ................................................................. 10 References .................................................................................................................................................................11 Corner Inlet Fishery 1 Introduction Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), all export fisheries must be assessed against the Commonwealth Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries . This is the first application for assessment of the Corner Inlet Fishery. The Corner Inlet Fishery is a multi-species, multi-gear fishery that is managed primarily using input controls. This report addresses key species taken in the fishery: • King George whiting (Sillaginodes punctate ); • southern garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir ); • rock flathead (Platycephalus laevigatus ); • Australian salmon ( Arripis trutta and Arripis truttaceus ); • silver trevally ( Pseudocaranx dentex ); and • southern calamari (Sepioteuthis australis ). The Fisheries Act 1995 (Fisheries Act) provides the broad statutory framework to ensure the ecologically sustainable management of Victoria’s aquatic resources. The Fisheries Regulations 2009 (Fisheries Regulations) provide the operational tools to manage the Corner Inlet and Victoria’s other fisheries. The Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) is committed to developing a fishery management plan for the Corner Inlet Fishery which will be prepared in accordance with the Fisheries Act. A fishery management plan must, under the Fisheries Act: • be consistent with the objectives of the Fisheries Act and any guidelines issued; • define the fishery to which it relates; • include the management objectives of the plan; • specify the objectives, state, status or use of the fishery; • specify the management tools and other measures that are or will be used to achieve the management objectives; • include guidelines for the criteria to be used for issuing licences and permits and for the renewal, variation or transfer of licences; • as far as possible, identify relevant critical components of the ecosystem, the current or potential threats to those components and existing or proposed preventative measures; • specify performance indicators, targets, and monitoring methods; and • as far as relevant and practical, identify the biological, ecological, social and economic factors relevant to the management of the fishery, including: ˗ current status, human uses and economic value; ˗ measures to minimise its impact on non-target species and the environment; ˗ research needs and priorities; and ˗ resources required to implement the plan. Corner Inlet Fishery 2 Description of the fishery Target species Corner Inlet commercial fishers target primarily: • King George whiting; • Southern garfish; • Rock flathead; • Australian salmon; • Silver trevally; and • Southern calamari. Prohibited species The take of abalone, giant crab, jellyfish, scallop, rock lobster and sea urchins is prohibited whilst fishing under a Corner Inlet fishing licence. A maximum of eight wrasse can be taken in any one day. Fishing area Corner Inlet is a large, shallow embayment located in eastern Victoria (Figure 1). The bay is dominated by seagrass which provides habitat for various fish species including King George whiting and rock flathead. The Corner Inlet Fishery is defined by the Fisheries Regulations as the total area of all bays, inlets, entrances bounded by a line running south-westerly from the mean high water mark on the south-western end of the Ninety Mile Beach (McLoughlins Entrance) which follows the mean high water mark along the outer or seaward shoreline of the Nooramunga Islands that enclose Shoal or Shallow Inlet, crossing the entrances at McLoughlins Beach, Manns Beach, Kate Kearney Entrance and Port Albert with a straight line between the mean high water marks on the seaward extremities on each side of each entrance, continuing along the mean high water mark on the outer seaward shoreline of Snake Island to the navigation light on Bentley Point then in a straight line to the mean high water mark on the most northern point of Entrance Point on Wilson’s Promontory (Figure 2). The 1,550 hectare Corner Inlet Marine National Park, within which all methods of