THIS week the Victoria Fisheries Authority have proposed a kingfish bag limit reduction for Victorian Anglers from 5 fish, to 2 per person.
This move to better protect kingfish stocks has been overwhelmingly well received by Victorian anglers to date and has shone a very bright spotlight onto NSW DPI’s management of kingfish, or should we say lack of management. Despite Victoria only having around 5% of the shared kingfish stock between themselves, NSW and South Australia, Victoria has chosen to move with the proposed reduction. Feedback coming from Victorian anglers indicates that recent years have seen some better numbers of kingfish turn up but, with that resurgence, has come heavy angling pressure and large hauls of fish, all possible under current bag limits.
NSW has itself seen kingfish popularity as a rec species climb through the roof. Since the banning of kingfish trapping in 1996 the species has really captured angler’s attention, with the recent decade almost reaching “fever pitch”, yet no recent measures have been put in place to protect stocks from this exponential increase in fishing pressure.
Over the past two decades we have seen reels and rods with huge drags and braided line become the kingfish tools of trade. In earlier years these brutes would often win their freedom, these days, success is far more likely. Boats and motors are better and safer so can travel further. Sounders leave little to the imagination and GPS marks are at your fingertips, no lining up on shore based landmarks! The internet has played a pivotal role in educating anglers on where to go, when, what tides and what bait, lures or flies to use . What would take most anglers years to learn can now be achieved in days or weeks thanks to the information age.
Real time on-line videos and chat pages can offer insights into exact locations of kingfish aggregations as they are happening, leading to flotillas of vessels all heading out to the same spot. It seems the minute a school of kingfish pop their heads up they are under instant pressure, with little to no rest. The results of too much information often leads to large scale hauls of kingfish, noting there is little to no reprieve for breeding aggregations either. Four anglers in a boat taking 20 fish seems excessive given the average feed of fish is 250 grams.
In order to manage stocks properly, NSW DPI needed to adapt to the impacts of population increase, species popularity and the role the internet is playing in kingfish management.
In 2022 NSW assessments showed the stock sitting somewhere near 26% of virgin biomass. At 20% the fishery should be closed. It is my opinion and the opinion of many notable anglers that the stock is now almost certainly to be lower. A quick survey of long time industry anglers who’ve targeted kingfish for many years will garner the same response, the stock is in sharp decline.
In 2021 a joint meeting of the NSW commercial and recreational committee’s saw a proposal presented by RFNSW to lift kingfish size limit and reduce the bag from 5 to 2. CommFish roundly rejected a size change and even suggested a size of 60cm for markets. Currently NSW is harvesting Kings at 65cm. Most kingfish do not attain a breeding size until at least 85cm.
Given the huge drop in commercial catch and all anecdote and data points showing the stock was under lots of pressure, DPI decided to leave the status quo and did not intervene to recover the stock. Subsequent years have seen what can only be described as a dramatic drop in successful Kingfish angling across much of NSW.
Currently kingfish tag recaptures are extremely high, indicating a smaller pool of fish from which anglers are selecting and many fisheries in NSW that once held huge abundance of Kingfish now see very few by comparison. Whilst some environmental factors may be at play, there’s no doubt the elephant in the room is overfishing and it’s a very large elephant. The most recent available data shows catches of both sectors are dramatically lower than previous decades despite population increase, with the recreational sector landings being higher than commercial.
Given the fertility and rapid growth rate of yellowtail kingfish it is a stain on Fisheries management that they are no longer one of the most abundant pelagics in the water.
With a current overly generous bag of 5 fish per person, it makes sense to increase the size limit and reduce the bag in line with Victoria. It is almost certain Victoria will follow suit with a size increase if NSW do, since NSW have around 70% of the stock.
If we were patient we would wait the months it would take to allow the 65cm stock to get to an 85cm breeding size, they grow that fast! This would mean a negligible reduction in meat for the fridge and a chance that many harvested fish had at least a chance to be involved in reproduction. Limiting fish over a meter to 1 fish would ensure the most fecund and robust breeders are also protected, since all fish are more fertile and produce better genetics the bigger they get.
A Limit on Commercial landings will be essential (TAC) and whilst the sector may prefer 60cm fish, the current state of the fishery would deem that larger fish in the market would be better than none!
Director General of DPI NSW Sean Sloan stated the Harvest strategies will put stock first. Its time DPI made good on this promise because without fish, neither sector functions. It’s time for abundant fisheries, not fisheries hanging on by a thread. It should be noted the director has moved on from DPI. I hope he didn’t see the writing on the wall.
