The GBRMPA recognises that fishing is an important and reasonable use of the Marine Park and consistent with use of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

However, it also acknowledges that fishing affects target species, non-target species and their habitats and consequently has the potential for producing ecological effects in both the fished areas and the reef system as a whole.

Key risks

• Extraction of top order predators (e.g. sharks) – most predator populations are relatively healthy, but a few species are under serious pressure, with potential flow-on impacts on habitats and other species in the food web.
• Incidental catch of protected species and other species of conservation concern.
  
• Death of non-targeted or discarded (by-catch) species.
  
• Each major ecological group plays a role in the complex food web of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. Targeting a specific level in the food web, or a specific size class, can have unintended ecological consequences.
  
• Fishing unprotected spawning aggregations.
  
• Maintaining the role of herbivorous fish that are critical for the health of coral reefs. Without herbivores, macroalgae (or seaweed) can overgrow corals resulting in coral mortality and reduced settlement and growth of new coral.