Off the north-east coast of Tasmania, could be one of the largest fishery resources in the country.
Commercial fisher Stuart Richey knows it’s there. He’s spent more than a decade advocating for it to be set up.
“Our family has been in aerial fish spotting for 50 years in Tasmania, and we were noticing more and more sardines along beaches, which is a little bit unusual,” Mr Richey, who owns Richey Fishing, said.
Along with fellow fisher Allan Barnett, Mr Richey estimates he has spent about $400,000 on equipment, nets, research and trips to another sardine fishery, in South Australia, in his push for a potential Tasmanian fishery.
It now looks to be a step closer to reality.
Stuart Richey has been lobbying for the creation of a sardine fishery off Tasmania’s coast for more than a decade. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
The Tasmanian department responsible for fisheries, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), says it is in “the early investigation stage of considering if a fishery for Australian sardine can be developed”.
Confirming the actual biomass size of the sardine population and what would constitute a sustainable take are the current focus of research.
A report by researchers from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) last year identified an enormous sardine population extending from New South Wales’s south coast to Tasmania’s east coast.
An IMAS report in 2023 found there was an estimated total spawning biomass of 350,000 tonnes of sardines between New South Wales and Tasmania. (ABC News)
The report estimated a total biomass of just under 350,000 tonnes, which could “sustain an annual catch of several tens of thousands of tonnes”.
It would make it the largest catch of any Australian fishery, the report read, apart from the South Australian sardine fishery (SASF) — the largest fishery by volume.
An NRE spokesperson said a more refined estimate of its size is the focus of a new IMAS report this year, to be released later this year.
The spokesperson did not answer questions from the ABC about the size of a potential fishery.
Sardines are fished mainly to be used as food in the aquaculture industry for other fish. (Adobe Stock: Andrea Izzotti)
Wait of more than a decade ‘hugely frustrating’
In 2013, Mr Richey contacted then-Labor deputy premier Bryan Green to discuss how he could get a trial fishery started, based on using South Australia’s fishery as a model.
Since then, Mr Richey said he had “been through a variety of fisheries ministers”.
“It’s just dragged on, and on, and on, since that period,” he said.
Mr Richey co-purchased the Tasmanian Blue Seafood factory in Huonville, which he says could be used for sardine processing. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
The Tasmania Blue Seafood processing facility in Huonville, which he co-purchased in February this year with KSF Australia, was also intended to be used for sardine processing.
“It is hugely frustrating in that everything we’ve predicted has so far exceeded our predictions,” he said.
“We’ve done everything we can possibly do; we’ve proved that the fishery’s there, we’ve shown what needs to be done.”
“[Processing facilities] like this could be just going flat out, processing these things at a very low level — we don’t need to be a big fishery.”
‘We need solid science’, IMAS researcher says
IMAS scientist Tim Ward says more research is needed. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
Dr Tim Ward, an Associate Professor of Fisheries Science and the lead author on the 2023 fishery report, said a sustainable fishery was possible.
If a fishery was to be set up, Dr Ward said catch rates needed to start low and a more comprehensive population survey needed to be conducted.
“We need solid science collected over a period of time to understand the size of the biomass, that’s critical,” he said.
Dr Ward said population estimates for the sardines have doubled. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
Since he first prepared a report for NRE in 2022, population estimates across the area have doubled.
“I think we were all quite surprised — we hadn’t done a comprehensive survey of the stock,” he said.
IMAS are analysing the daily egg production of sardine off Australia’s south-east coast to determine how big the population is. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)
An NRE spokesperson said it would assess this year’s population update “in further considering how a sustainable sardine fishery might be developed in consultation with stakeholders”.
Dr Ward said a precautionary approach was needed.
“We need to look locally at the ecological dependence of predators on sardines, and so, understand what the implications are locally for Tasmania and Victoria,” he said.
Social licence questioned after super trawler saga
The Australian Marine Conservation Society’s (AMCS) Adrian Meder said he was unconvinced a Tasmanian fishery could be operated sustainably.
“Tasmanians, and indeed Australians, rejected in the strongest terms the idea of industrial fishing when we had the super trawler turn up,” Mr Meder said.
In 2012, the 143-metre long FV Margiris – the second-largest factory trawler ship in the world – entered Tasmanian waters.
The FV Margiris super trawler came to Tasmania in 2012 and was based out of Devonport to fish for mackerel. (Greenpeace)
The super trawler was approved to catch an 18,000-tonne quota of pelagic fish in the Commonwealth Small Pelagic Fishery, which includes waters off Tasmania’s coast.
Supporters argued that the vessel was economically efficient, the risk of catching dolphins and seals was minimal and could be mitigated, and prescribed catch limits would restrict any impact to fish stocks.
Environmental and fishing groups feared the trawler’s catch rate would devastate pelagic fish populations, depriving other fish and seabirds of an important food source.
An anti-Margiris advertisement that was taken out by protest groups in The Australian newspaper (www.stopthetrawler.net)
The federal government ended the debate by banning super trawlers over 130 metres in length from Australian waters in 2015.
“So, the next question is, will we actually respect that and will that be reflected in what decisions are made on where this fishery can go?” Mr Meder said.
“I think its going to have impacts that run completely counter to what we already know about what’s acceptable to the Australian community and where that social licence extends to.”
The updated IMAS population survey is expected to be released this year. (Adobe Stock: Richard Carey)
Mr Richey wants to dispel images of massive super trawlers, and said he isn’t advocating for a big fishery.
“It’s got to start at a very low level first,” he said.
“It may finish up a bigger fishery, but it’s got to start at a low level. And the boats [to be used] are here in Tasmania.”
Dr Ward said there were ecological and economic risks associated with over-exploiting a resource.
“But I think what we’ve learned in the South Australian sardine fishery (SASF) and in the Commonwealth Small Pelagic Fishery is that those risks can be managed,” he said.
Could Port Lincoln be a template?
South Australia’s sardine fishery, based in Port Lincoln, employs over 200 full-time workers and generated over $31 million last year.
It is considered a template for a possible Tasmanian fishery.
While some of Port Lincoln’s sardines are for human consumption, most get turned into fish food. (Facebook: Port Lincoln Sardine)
By volume it is the largest fishery in the country, with over 46,000 tonnes caught last year, and it uses the “purse-seine” fishing method rather than trawling – a more targeted approach that uses smaller boats, with less risk of bycatch.
The market for human consumption of sardines in Australia is low and over 95 per cent of sardines caught in South Australia are used to feed to other fish in the aquaculture industry.
The potential for a future Tasmanian sardine fishery to perform a similar role, by supplementing the state’s well-established salmon aquaculture industry, was highlighted in the 2023 IMAS report.
The absence of a Tasmanian sardine fishery, it read, “limits the opportunity for the salmon industry to obtain the tens of thousands of tonnes of forage fish that it needs annually from a sustainable local source.”
Sardines may head ‘straight to fish farms’
The salmon industry in Tasmania could potentially benefit from a supply of sardines as fish food. (Supplied: Huon Aquaculture)
Mr Meder said a small, sustainable fishery could be established, but he didn’t believe it would remain that size.
“The bulk of that fishery, in order for it to be economic, is going to be headed straight to fish farm production,” Mr Meder said.
“And every time we go out there, we’ve proven to have unacceptable impacts on things like dolphins and seals — the bycatch has been way out of step with community expectations.”
For his part, Mr Richey said he believed a human consumption market was viable too.
“We’re missing out, but Tasmania’s missing out because we’ve got this resource, we’re not utilising it, we’re not employing people, we’re just stagnating with it.”