Aus Fish Coral

17/06/2026

The Queensland Coral Fishery experienced increasing harvest levels in the late 2010s. What is less often discussed is what happened next.

Recognising that fishing effort and participation were increasing, Fisheries Queensland adopted a harvest strategy and selected 2016–17 to 2018–19 as a stable reference period. This period pre-dated the increase in fishing effort that followed and was used as a precautionary baseline for the development of species-level harvest limits and quota management arrangements.

During the reference period, the fishery averaged 973 fishing days per year.

Fishing effort subsequently increased to:

📈 1,693 fishing days in 2019–20
📈 1,757 fishing days in 2020–21

That's an increase of approximately 81% above the reference-period average.

Importantly, Fisheries Queensland didn't ignore these changes.

For species with sufficient catch history, historical harvest information from the reference period was used to inform management settings. For species where information was limited, precautionary harvest limits were applied following independent expert scientific advice.

Over recent years, the fishery has undergone some of the most significant reforms in its history, including:

✅ Species-specific harvest limits
✅ Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) for key species
✅ Expanded species-level reporting requirements
✅ Prescribed Commercial Catch (PCC) limits across CITES-listed coral species
✅ Enhanced monitoring, vessel tracking and reporting requirements
✅ Ongoing Ecological Risk Assessments and independent scientific review

The introduction of species-level ITQs was designed to prevent race-to-fish behaviour and to better manage popular target species.

No fishery is perfect, and management should continue to evolve as new information becomes available. When increasing effort and changing fishery dynamics were identified, action was taken to constrain harvest, improve monitoring, and strengthen management.

That's what adaptive, precautionary fisheries management is supposed to look like.

With a new Ecological Risk Assessment and updated Harvest Strategy expected in late 2026, the management framework continues to evolve as new information becomes available.

16/06/2026

How Much of the Great Barrier Reef Does the Queensland Coral Fishery Cover?

Let's use an extremely conservative assumption.

If every diver in the fishery:

✔ Used a 150 m hose
✔ Completed 4 dives per day
✔ Covered 100% of the area within hose range on every dive
✔ Never revisited the same area twice

A 150 m hose gives access to a circle covering a whopping 70,686 m² per dive! That's more than 10 football fields.

Based on the 2021 reported 1,757 diver-days for the entire fishery (which has since significantly reduced), the maximum theoretical area covered would be:

496 km² per year

Sounds like a lot?

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park covers approximately:

344,400 km²

That means the entire fishery would theoretically cover just:

0.14% of the Marine Park or put another way 99.86% of the GBR would never even be visited by a diver in a given year.

And remember, this assumes divers somehow cover every square metre of a 70,686 m² area on every dive and never overlap locations—something that obviously doesn't happen in reality.

The actual collection footprint is far smaller, with corals hand-selected one colony at a time.

15/06/2026

The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) continues to advocate for transitioning the Queensland Coral Fishery to aquaculture.

The problem? The science and carbon footprint don't support that argument.

We have crunched our numbers (fuel and electricity are our main CO₂ contributors) and this comparison shows the approximate greenhouse gas emissions required to produce one coral to market:

🌊 Wild Collection Coral: ~5 kg CO₂-e/ marketable coral
🏭 Aquaculture Coral (3 years growth): ~65 kg CO₂-e/ marketable coral

That's around 13 times more emissions to produce a marketable coral through land-based aquaculture.

Unlike aquaculture, responsibly managed wild collection does not require years of continuous pumping, filtration, temperature control, lighting, water treatment and energy-intensive husbandry/nutrition.

The Queensland Coral Fishery is one of the most tightly regulated fisheries in Australia. Annual harvest levels represent a tiny fraction of available coral biomass, with strict catch limits and quotas, daily fishing reporting requirements, vessel tracking and regulatory oversight.

If the goal is genuinely to reduce environmental impacts and support sustainable use of reef resources, then carbon efficiency should be part of the conversation.

Sustainability isn't just about where a product comes from—it's about the total environmental footprint required to produce it.

Closing the most highly regulated coral fishery in the world and replacing it with a significantly more carbon-intensive production system is difficult to justify.

06/06/2026

Check out these unique leather corals we have been collecting that are similar in appearance to Sinularia. Posted from our friends at R66.

04/06/2026

Amazing acros!!!

01/06/2026

The reef is more than just a beautiful place to visit. It’s home to thousands of species, supports local jobs and communities, and continues to surprise us every day.

We’re proud to play a small part in its future through sustainable fisheries, coral research and reef restoration.

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30/05/2026

🔥🔥🔥

18/05/2026

We’re proud to have received the Cassowary Coast Regional Council Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award 🏆🪸

We don’t often share a lot of what happens behind the scenes, but this award reflects the work we’ve been building over the years across sustainable marine collection, coral aquaculture, reef restoration, scientific research, and helping raise awareness about the Great Barrier Reef.

Over the past few years we’ve been fortunate to work with AIMS on RRAP reef restoration projects, contribute to coral traceability research with ANSTO, and continue investing into the future of coral aquaculture here in our region.

As a small family business, this award genuinely means a lot to us and we’re very proud of what we’ve built.

A huge thank you to our staff, contractors, research partners, customers, and everyone who has supported us along the way 🌊🐠

09/05/2026

09/05/2026

Some of the acro I liked in our tanks this week