A recent report into Australia’s eastern orange roughy stock may pave the way for a targeted quota, Simon Boag of South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association told World Fishing.
Orange roughy is managed in five zones in southern Australia, but only one has a quota: severe overfishing in the early 1990’s pushed the stocks to the edge of commercial extinction. At present the eastern stock, located off the east coast of Tasmania has no targeted fishing allowance.
However, the eastern stock was recently assessed using an Acoustic Optical System (AOS). This device uses echo soundings to accurately measure the density of orange roughy in an area.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) report concluded that the best estimate for the eastern stock is 48,000 tonnes. To put this into perspective the weight of orange roughy, in just this one of the five zones, is equivalent to the weight of 100,000 horses. Probably the most important message from this work is that the eastern orange roughy stock is rebuilding and has increased by 7,400 tonnes between 2006 and 2010.
However, Mr Boag explained that the survey is only one of many things that inform the stock assessment. He added that both the Resource Assessment Group, and then the Management Advisory Committee will consider the assessment. “Both bodies will then send advice to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority’s Commission who will ultimately make a decision about the stock and whether it has recovered sufficiently to allow a targeted quota to be caught in the east,” he said.
He concluded, "This report comes as no surprise to the fishing industry. Although roughy was overfished, very strong fisheries management legislation in Australia means that the fishery is rebuilding well."
