Banded Morwong Fishery

The banded morwong (Cheilodactylus spectabilis) fishery is a live net fishery where all banded morwong are caught and shipped alive to Asian restaurants and markets via Melbourne or Sydney. This fishery became restricted in 1996 when a limited number of non-transferable endorsements were issued. The fishing licence (banded morwong) was introduced in 1998 and was limited to 29 licences. There was concern about the increasing pressure on east coast stocks and as a result of a review of the fishery, part of the fishery moved to transferable quota management in October 2008. In the 2016/17 quota year the fisher moved from the original numbers to a weight based quota management system.

image: banded morwong