Tasmanian recreational rock lobster and abalone fisheries: 2019-20 fishing season

This report provides an assessment of the 2019-20 recreational rock lobster and abalone fishing season and continues the time series monitoring trends in these fisheries commenced in the mid-1990s. During 2019-20 almost 17,200 persons held at least one recreational rock lobster licence and 10,600 persons held a recreational abalone licence; representing a 5% fall in licence numbers when compared with 2018-19. The assessment is provided by a survey involving a random sample of licence-holders who were contacted by telephone prior to the start of the 2019-20 fishing season and invited to participate in a phone-diary survey to monitor their rock lobster and abalone fishing activity between November 2019 and April 2020. A total of 506 respondents (402 valid licence-holders) completed the survey (83% effective response rate), providing detailed catch and effort information for each fishing trip undertaken. These data were scaled up to represent the activity of all licence-holders.