The concerning status of South Australia’s (SA) Snapper fishery, combined with the species’ episodic recruitment patterns and prominence as a target among the commercial, recreational, and charter fishing sectors, presents challenges for its effective management. Recently, the SA Government announced a wide-ranging closure of Snapper fishing to facilitate rebuilding of Snapper stocks, including those in vital spawning areas. The management arrangements in place result in substantial quantities of Snapper being released each year and for the current restrictions to be effective, the fish that are released must have a high survival rate. Understanding the drivers of fishing mortality is central to robust fisheries stock assessment and management, and new technologies allow the comparison of fishing mortality estimates (F) collected using a variety of approaches. Determining the post-release fate and impacts of barotrauma and handling on target species is pivotal to assessing and revising the effectiveness of size, boat and bag limits, commercial catch limitations for controlling F, and sustaining stocks.

This investment will quantify release rates of Snapper across the commercial, charter boat and recreational sectors of South Australia’s Marine Scalefish Fishery and determine rates of post release survival for line-caught Snapper using conventional and electronic tags. The project will develop an improved understanding of Snapper movement patterns through community supported tagging studies and engage with the key fishing sectors to develop a Code-of-Practice that promotes responsible fish-handling practices, humane-treatment, and harm-minimisation for Snapper.