Submission individual/ Organisation Category shore/ method Target stock view Compliance rating Bag limit of 5 Suggested Bag limit comments Possession Suggested Possession comments Boat limit Suggested Boat limit comments Non-fisher Suggested Non-fisher limit comments: Consumption at Consumption at sea comments: Minimum Minumum age licence comments Possession Possession deeming Measuring Measure device comments Remove Comm measuring comments: Abalone tool Tool comments: Night Night time closure comments: Northern Northern Area Comments: Designated Designated port comments: Administrative matters and further comments # organisatio boat bag limit limit from 20 to possession limit of 15 boat limit possession of 2 non- sea. age of deeming provisions comments: device commercial definition: time Area ports and n 10. fisher licence provisions definition fishers to closure definition landing areas possession holder (< 10 measure limit years) immediately. #1 Organisation Tasmanian Conservation Trust Environmental NGO the shore snorkel I tend to only take abalone declined fair Support 5 Supports the notion that recreational fishing is “for feed” rather than for Do not support 5 Possession Limit and Bag Limit should be the same to Support Will help reduce illegal take and reduce pressure on stocks. Support 2 Suggest a household limit of 15 Do not support Open to manipulation to allow catch of Do not Licence holders should be 16 years old. There could be a provision to allow minors to Support Age limit should be 16 years Support Helps standardises measurements. Do not support Protecting undersized abalone is vital for the Support Reduces damage to abalone and wastage. Support Will make enforcement easier. Support Do not support Marine police resources are already too limited with regards to fisheries The recreational take of abalone in Tasmania makes up an insignificant part of the overall statewide commercial catch. Changes to recreational fishing are unlikely to have a significant impact when diving for other “filling the freezer” or some other purpose. make enforcement easier and to reduce fishing abalone for any residential address. undersized abalone and exceed bag support take abalone under the supervision of accompanying adults, which would be taken off rather than 10 years. management of this fishery. Commercial fishers seem management. Unless marine police can guarantee that monitoring new on fisheries sustainability or solve problems for the statewide commercial sector. However, these proposed changes would benefit the fishery by reducing waste, making enforcement easier reasons pressure on stocks. There should also be a 15 abalone Should also be a limit of 15 abalone per residential address. Recreational licence holders should limits. adult's bag limit. happy to measure underwater. This requirement, designated ports will not cause problems then this proposal should be rejected. and reinforcing the notion that recreational fishing should be for "providing a feed and not filling the freezer". limit per household/address. be Tasmanian residents. although unlikely to be enforced provides a definite guide to what is acceptable behaviour to both It should be noted that the recreational catch is also much more significant on the east and southeast coast and would benefit from more specific management changes. Recreational catch recreational and commercial divers. likely exceed commercial catch in this region. At the 26 July 2019 Abalone Fishery Advisory Committee (AbFAC) meeting, members were informed by IMAS that current size limits would still allow stocks to be fished down to the point of collapse. This is of particular concern in areas in the east and southeast coasts targeted by recreational fishers, who are not constrained by economic limits and represent a large pool of latent effort. Increasing recreational fishing and illegal take in the east and southeast in particular may lead to localised serial depletion and even local collapse of abalone stocks. This problem needs to be considered in more detail and needs to be urgently addressed. There is a critical need to ensure that size limits adequately protect stocks in the recreational fishery, as ultimately an appropriate size limit is the only effective safeguard against fishery collapse along much of the Tasmanian coastline due to recreational fishing. There needs to be an explicit strategy to develop size limits that provide this protection to the recreational fishery. Licensing requirements could also be improved. If it is impossible to make it a requirement to make it compulsory for licence holders to be Tasmanian residents, then licence holders should have to have a Tasmanian residential address. Recreational fishers should not be permitted to take any abalone from Tasmania to other jurisdictions. Tour operators that run abalone fishing tours should be made jointly responsible for any breaches of fisheries regulations made by any of their clients while on one of their organised trips. Greater effort needs to be made to ensure, through education and enforcement, the rule that licence holders must take their own fish. Another major threat to the abalone fishery is the expanding urchin barrens on Tasmania's east coast. Long-spined sea urchin numbers have increased as a direct result of overfishing of rock lobster. This has resulted in the almost complete removal of large (carapace length >140 mm) rock lobsters that are the only significant local predator for these urchins. This has resulted in the ongoing expansion of urchin barrens and destruction of the reef habitat that supports the abalone fishery (as well as the rock lobster fishery and other fisheries). A recent IMAS report indicates that 15% of east coast reefs have already been lost to these barrens and there is an expectation that 50% will be lost inn the near future. In some areas 90% of reef has been lost. A recent report to the Tasmanian Abalone Council stated that this problem is costing the commercial fishery $49 million/year. This is a major problem for the fishery and cost to the Tasmanian community, even ignoring impacts on biodiversity and recreational fishing amenity. There is still no evidence-based plan to deal effectively with long-spined urchin barrens on the east coast (or anywhere else), despite this issue being raised by the Tasmanian Conservation Trust for over 20 years. Abalone, rock lobster and other fisheries are excluded from established urchin barrens. Once established, these barrens cannot be expected to recover without human intervention in the foreseeable future. Cost and depth limitations for working divers means that there is no realistic expectation that established barrens will ever recover using existing technologies, although new technologies, including remote or autonomous underwater vehicles (ROVs and AUVs) may be a possible solution. To protect biodiversity and abalone fisheries, there needs to be an evidence based strategy that ensures that the density of large rock lobster (carapace length >140 mm) will increase to levels where they will control numbers of barren forming long-spined urchins and prevent further barren formation. There is an urgent need to develop effective strategies to better manage the rock lobster fishery and deal with the urchin barren disaster. In 2018 Abalone FAC, Crustacean FAC and Recreational FAC all recommended that the Minister set up an ongoing broad based stakeholder group that would meet regularly to develop effective strategies to deal with urchin barrens. Even this basic step has not been achieved. Research also needs to be done to identify to relationship between rock lobster and abalone with aim of protecting the abalone fishery as well as biodiversity. A comprehensive, adequate and representative system of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) would facilitate this research, protect biodiversity, act as a baseline reference to help identify impacts of fishing and climate change, and also increase egg rock lobster egg production which may increase self recruitment success for Tasmania rock lobsters. #2 Organisation Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania indigenous On the whole, this submission This submission does not support the only tools being supports the minimum age used as a knife or abalone iron for Aboriginal activities, requirements and possession deeming either under current recreational regulation or for recreational fisheries, however Aboriginal cultural and ceremonial activities. It will, there needs to be exemptions for however, support these amendments for recreational Aboriginal fisheries, particularly in fisheries. Aboriginal Tasmanians also possess cultural regard to permits for Aboriginal tools that are still made and used today, where the size cultural and ceremonial activities. and shape of the wooden wedges and levers are The rights of adults to teach Support but note: This submission will support the radically different to the proscribed metal tools. children may, or will, be impacted by removal of the requirements for commercial fishers to Furthermore, stone may be used to remove the flesh this amendment, particularly in our measure every abalone, however this amendment from the meat, when these are cultural activities. island communities of Bass Strait and The definition of a measuring device should be expanded needs a check and balance for those commercial divers Tasmanian Aboriginal people may also choose to not Bruny Island. Where abalone is a to allow the interaction of other cultural indicators for first entering