Commercial All professional fishing operations must be licensed under the Queensland Fisheries Act. The Queensland Fisheries Service (QFS) has a comprehensive licensing program for professional fishing which regulates the harvesting of wild fish stocks through fisheries regulations and management plans.
A wide range of restrictions apply to professional fishing operations to ensure that fishers harvest only what nature can replace. These include: - Strict caps on the number of licences in each fishery
- restrictions on the type and size of fishing vessels
- seasonal and permanent closures,
- minimum and maximum size limits
- spawning closures,
- comprehensive gear restrictions
- limits on taking certain genders of some species
- time restrictions
- quotas
Compliance with these regulations is monitored by the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol (QBFB), a unit of the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
Professional fishers are also required to report all catches to the QFS in daily fishing logbooks. This information is analysed to gain insights into catch rates and fishing effort.
Professional fishers are required to undertake rigorous training prior to entering the industry. Training includes courses in seafood safety and quality, maritime safety and environmental management. Recreational A licence is not required to go recreational fishing in Queensland, except for certain freshwater impoundments.
Fisheries regulations do impose limits on minimum and maximum fish sizes, gender, the maximum number of particular species in possession, the types of fishing apparatus that can be used, the closure of specific areas to fishing, and seasonal closures.
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