QSIA - Catching Fish for Everyone

Mud Crab Fishery

Mud crabs are as much a Queensland icon as Fourex or the Brisbane Broncos.

Mud crabs are harvested by professional fishers throughout the Queensland coast from Southport to Karumba, and generate almost $10 million in wharf value to the State’s economy. Mud crabs are sold mostly as an ‘icon’ species to the tourist and restaurant trade.

Approximately 40% of Australia’s mud crab harvest comes from Queensland.

Queensland has the most precautionary mud crab management of any State in Australia. Only male crabs over a scientifically based minimum legal size are able to be harvested. All female crabs must be returned to the water.

Mud crabs are harvested by traditional crab pot apparatus. Fishers are limited to using 50 pots per licence.

The minimum legal size for male crabs is 15cm measured across the widest part of the carapace.

Mud crabs are very highly fecund, have a protracted spawning period, grow rapidly and reach sexual maturity early. These are traits that make them resilient to fishing pressure.

However, mud crabs, like most Queensland seafood species, depend on maintaining good coastal water quality and, in particular, healthy mangrove habitats.

 A major concern of professional mud crab fishers is the impact of urban, industrial and agricultural development on fisheries ecosystems. For many years, fishers have been contributing to scientific research that seeks to better understand these environments. They have also been campaigning for better protection of vital fish nurseries, habitats and environmental flows.

Doing a school project? Like more information? Please see the QFS commercial fishery species information series.

Blue Swimmer Crab Fishery

The blue swimmer crab fishery is centred in the southern part of Queensland between Bundaberg and Southport. Over 60% of the catch comes from the waters around Hervey Bay and Moreton Bay.

Blue swimmer crabs are harvested by both traditional baited crab pots and as a by-product in the trawl fishery.

Blue swimmer crabs are sometimes called ‘sand crabs’.

Queensland has the most precautionary management arrangements for blue swimmer crabs of any State in Australia.

Only male crabs above a science-based minimum legal size are allowed to be harvested. All female crabs must be returned to the water.

The minimum legal size limit of male blue swimmer crabs in Queensland is 11.4cm, which ensures that enough crabs have spawned before entering the fishery.

The blue swimmer crab fishery is governed the Fisheries Regulations 1995, which limits the numbers of licences in the fishery, the areas that crabs can be harvested and apparatus that can be used.

Pot fishers are limited to 50 pots per licence. Trawl fishers are limited to 500 crabs outside Moreton Bay and 100 inside Moreton Bay in possession.

Blue swimmer crabs are very highly fecund, have a protracted spawning period, grow rapidly and reach sexual maturity early. These are traits that make them resilient to fishing pressure.

However, like mud crabs, the maintenance of a healthy blue swimmer crab stocks depends on maintaining good coastal water quality and healthy coastal fisheries habitats.

A major concern of professional blue swimmer crab fishers is the impact of urban, industrial and agricultural development on fisheries ecosystems. For many years, fishers have been contributing to scientific research that seeks to better understand these environments. They have also been campaigning for better protection of vital fish nurseries, habitats and environmental flows.