Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, 2006:

"The Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF) comprises the East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery (ECOTF), the Moreton Bay Trawl Fishery and the River and Inshore Beam Trawl Fishery (RIBTF).  Target species of these fisheries include prawns, scallops, bugs and squid.  Various byproduct species are also retained by the fleet.  The ECTF is the largest fishery in Queensland, both in terms of the volume of product caught and economic value of the product.

The Queensland Fisheries (East Coast Trawl) Management Plan 1999 (The Trawl Plan) was introduced in 1999 and amended in 2000.  

The ECTF covers all tidal waters east of longitude 142°31.89'E out to the East Coast Offshore Constitutional Settlement (OCS) Boundary between Cape York and the Queensland/New South Wales (NSW) border.

During the period 1991-96, the average turtle catch was estimated at approximately 6000/year.  Since the introduction of TEDs in 2001, a dramatic reduction in turtle captures has been observed in the fishery.  In the period 2001-05 the average turtle interaction has been 14/year.

Pre-Trawl Plan average annual catch rates of turtles were estimated at 5901 ± 702 turtles per year.  Based on the 11 turtles reported in the SOCI logbook (SOCI01) in 2005 (with only one reported fatality), captures were less than the 5% of 1991-92 turtle catch reference level (295 turtles) under the review event specified in Schedule 2, Part 3 of the Trawl Plan.  Consequently, no review event has been triggered, indicating that TEDs are effective at ensuring that the vast majority of turtles are able to successfully escape from a trawl."

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Citation and/or URL

Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries 2006, Annual status report: East Coast Trawl Fishery, The State of Queensland, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries 2006. 53pp.  

Spatial Coverage

All tidal waters (excluding estuaries) along the East Coast of Queensland out to the East Coast OCS Boundary between Cape York and the QLD/NSW border.  

Temporal Coverage

2005 

Update Frequency

Other Information

None