Understanding the East Coast Commercial Net Fishery
he first thing to understand is some of the terminology of commercial fishing. To be a commercial fisher, you must first hold a commercial fishing licence. Once you have one of these, you then must have "symbols" attached to your licence that dictate which areas of the fishery you are allowed to access and fish in and in some instances, what species you can take.
The DAFF website tells us that at present there are roughly 1500 commercial licences in Queensland. Fortunately no more new licences are being issued, so if you want to become a commercial fisher when you grow up, you'll need to buy or lease a licence off someone who already holds one. Now, if say you want to go net fishing on the east coast, you will need to have net symbols attached to your licence. About the only simple thing about this system is the way symbols (often called endorsements) are named.
For example, net symbols start with the letter "N", Crab symbols start with the letter "C" and trawl symbols start with the letter "T". This letter is then followed by a number that dictates exactly what type of apparatus you can use and/or what geographical area you can fish and what species of fish you can take. For example, an N1 symbol allows you to use certain types of nets the length of the east coast and catch any type of fish of legal size, interestingly, except for barramundi.and Spotted and Spanish mackerel (supposedly). If you want to catch barra, you'll need to get an N2 symbol. The N2 symbol allows you to catch all species including barra and allows you to set nets in estuaries and rivers that you can't if you only have an N1 symbol - in theory at least.
But wait, there's more.
You can now get an N4 symbol that allows you to fish offshore anywhere along the east coast using nets up to 1200m long, as long as the water is more than 20m deep! The "good news" is that in waters less than 20m deep, N4 and N1 holders can only set nets up to 600m long! That's reassuring isn't it - NOT! ** See our comments regarding mackerel netting under that dropdown for more info about this destructive style of fishing.
If that isn't bad enough, we now have another symbol (recently redesignated) N11 that originally was created to allow commercial mackerel line fishers to net gar for bait. The original intent was fine, but sadly just about every commercial line and net fisher has one of the N11 symbols and many have realised they can use it to great benefit on the state's beaches and in the estuaries to catch just about everything that swims. This net is a small mesh (12-45mm) bait net up to 400-600m long and 200m in rivers and creeks (that's not a typos folks) and is being hauled and set all over the state right now, destroying fish stocks, especially juvenile fish, in our estuaries.
Finally for SEQ residents, you have to contend with N10 and K symbols as well. N10 allows the setting of portable fish traps (called tunnel nets), while the K symbols are those required to net ocean beaches for mullet, tailor, dart and anything else that happens to be swimming by at the time.
To bone up on the complexities of commercial netting symbols in Queensland, go to the DAFF website as follows - https://www.daff.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/56191/Commercial-Fisheries-handbook.pdf
The DAFF website tells us that at present there are roughly 1500 commercial licences in Queensland. Fortunately no more new licences are being issued, so if you want to become a commercial fisher when you grow up, you'll need to buy or lease a licence off someone who already holds one. Now, if say you want to go net fishing on the east coast, you will need to have net symbols attached to your licence. About the only simple thing about this system is the way symbols (often called endorsements) are named.
For example, net symbols start with the letter "N", Crab symbols start with the letter "C" and trawl symbols start with the letter "T". This letter is then followed by a number that dictates exactly what type of apparatus you can use and/or what geographical area you can fish and what species of fish you can take. For example, an N1 symbol allows you to use certain types of nets the length of the east coast and catch any type of fish of legal size, interestingly, except for barramundi.and Spotted and Spanish mackerel (supposedly). If you want to catch barra, you'll need to get an N2 symbol. The N2 symbol allows you to catch all species including barra and allows you to set nets in estuaries and rivers that you can't if you only have an N1 symbol - in theory at least.
But wait, there's more.
You can now get an N4 symbol that allows you to fish offshore anywhere along the east coast using nets up to 1200m long, as long as the water is more than 20m deep! The "good news" is that in waters less than 20m deep, N4 and N1 holders can only set nets up to 600m long! That's reassuring isn't it - NOT! ** See our comments regarding mackerel netting under that dropdown for more info about this destructive style of fishing.
If that isn't bad enough, we now have another symbol (recently redesignated) N11 that originally was created to allow commercial mackerel line fishers to net gar for bait. The original intent was fine, but sadly just about every commercial line and net fisher has one of the N11 symbols and many have realised they can use it to great benefit on the state's beaches and in the estuaries to catch just about everything that swims. This net is a small mesh (12-45mm) bait net up to 400-600m long and 200m in rivers and creeks (that's not a typos folks) and is being hauled and set all over the state right now, destroying fish stocks, especially juvenile fish, in our estuaries.
Finally for SEQ residents, you have to contend with N10 and K symbols as well. N10 allows the setting of portable fish traps (called tunnel nets), while the K symbols are those required to net ocean beaches for mullet, tailor, dart and anything else that happens to be swimming by at the time.
To bone up on the complexities of commercial netting symbols in Queensland, go to the DAFF website as follows - https://www.daff.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/56191/Commercial-Fisheries-handbook.pdf
How many N symbols are there out there?
That's the $64,000 question. Obtaining accurate data of the number of the various netting symbols is extremely difficult. As we are able to find some of this data, we'll publish it FYI below.
Until then, if we say there are around 100 x N1 symbols and 90 x N2 symbols out there, we'd be fairly close to the mark. There are a much smaller number of N4 symbols (thank god) out there, but we're not sure just how many right now. The WWF have bought out 3 x N4 symbols that were operating north of Cairns in recent times, but we are not sure how many more there are out there..
But here's the kicker - there could be as many as 400 or more N11 symbols out there!!!!
Until then, if we say there are around 100 x N1 symbols and 90 x N2 symbols out there, we'd be fairly close to the mark. There are a much smaller number of N4 symbols (thank god) out there, but we're not sure just how many right now. The WWF have bought out 3 x N4 symbols that were operating north of Cairns in recent times, but we are not sure how many more there are out there..
But here's the kicker - there could be as many as 400 or more N11 symbols out there!!!!
