Catch reporting update
by Department of NRE Tasmania 1 Dec 2024 04:02 UTC
Rock lobster © Department of NRE Tasmania
With the opening of the East Coast Stock Rebuilding Zone coming up, we're not far off peak rock lobster fishing time.
But how's catch looking from the first part of the season?
2024-25 so far
The graphic below summarises your catch reports for the season up to 25 November.
We'll continue to share periodic updates to these statistics throughout the season. We wish you the best of luck on your fishing trips!
What about last year?
The graphic below summarises the data from the 2023-24 rock lobster season.
When looking at this data, it's important to note that it doesn't capture all the rock lobster fishing that happened last season, because:
- Rock lobster catch reporting was not compulsory until 2 December, so early season catch for many fishers was not reported.
- While not everyone who bought a rock lobster licence necessarily fished, of the 13,148 people estimated to have fished for rock lobster at least once in 2023-24 only 7,520 fishers (or 57%) made at least one catch report.
Low reporting rates for the first season of catch reporting were not unexpected. Reporting rates were likely affected by fishers' awareness and understanding of the new requirements, how often people remembered to report and some technical issues which occurred early in the season.
We've worked to address these barriers, and others identified through fisher feedback for the 2024-25 season, and we'll continue to work with you to improve catch reporting and to make sure the data accurately reflects what's happening on the water.
Until then, results from the annual IMAS telephone survey will continue to be used as the primary measure of recreational rock lobster catch.