Abalone divers say 41 per cent catch reduction 'a kick in the face'

The number of abalone that divers can catch will be slashed by more than 40 per cent for the coming year, as commercial fishers weigh up potential buyout offers from the government.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) announced today it would reduce the amount of black-lip abalone that can be commercially caught from 88 tonnes last year to 52 tonnes for 2026-27.

The figure was determined by the Total Allowable Fishing Committee (TAFC), an independent body of scientific experts.

It is the lowest catch since quotas were introduced in the late 1980s.

The luxury shellfish sells for around $25 to $30 per kilogram.

DPIRD deputy secretary of fisheries and forestry, Tara Black, said the reduction was a necessary reset to protect the long-term future of abalone populations and the surrounding industry.

"We are worried about the sustainability of the resource as well as the sustainability of our commercial fishing industry," she said.

Ms Black said the decision was informed by multiple factors, including decreased export demand from China, climate change, marine heatwaves and the depletion of abalone stocks.

But the secretary of the Abalone Association of NSW, John Smythe, said the decline of the catch and the subsequent impact was a "pretty disgusting state of affairs".

"We've done everything over the years to guarantee the sustainability of these stocks," he said.

"It's a kick in the face for all the sacrifices that people in the industry have made."

Buyout offer 'way below' value

Part of the government's strategy is to offer a potential voluntary share buyout to commercial fishers, in particular those who dive on the coastline between Batemans Bay and Bermagui.

"The abalone resource has declined to unsustainable levels, and what we need to do is reduce fishing pressure," Ms Black said.

Across the industry, there are around 3,500 shares held by 41 shareholders that allow commercial fishers to harvest the luxury shellfish.

The proposed buyback offer from the government places a valuation at around $4,200 per share.

That is a significant decline from when the TAFC estimated that shares in 2018 were worth $10,492.

The commercial industry has been calling for a voluntary buyback for years, but Mr Smythe said the offer on the table was "way below the realistic value".

"It should be paid as compensation," he said.

"The compensation values should be a lot higher than what they are.

"If a fair figure was announced, I'd say about 50 per cent [of the commercial industry] would want to retire at the moment."

Consultation and feedback on the buyout offer will be open until the middle of July.

Dispute over cause of abalone collapse

While the commercial industry, the government and traditional owners on the south coast all recognise that abalone stocks are in decline, the cause of the depletion is contested.

Both the government and the industry identified the pressure on the resource from illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) catch of abalone, which the TAFC estimates to be around 35 tonnes per year.

But south coast native title holders question the IUU catch estimate, which includes abalone harvested by traditional owners.

Wally Stewart, co-founder of the NSW Aboriginal Fishing Rights group, says the commercial take has been unsustainably high for decades.

"They're trying to sell a misled story to say that Aboriginal people have destroyed the industry, and we know who destroyed it," he said.

"They've managed the industry wrong with the total allowable catch.

"From 1983 to 2022 there was over 10,000 tonnes of abalone taken out of our water. There's no record keeping between 1974 to 1983, which is probably another 10 or 15,000 tonnes."

Mr Smythe said that the industry supported cultural fishing and the right of Aboriginal people to collect abalone for their own use.

But he claimed that certain people were abusing their cultural fishing right.

"These guys are doing it under the guise of cultural fishing and there's nothing that fisheries (DPIRD) can do about it," he said.

Under Commonwealth native title law, traditional owners are entitled to take abalone without any bag limits, and recent court cases against Aboriginal cultural fishers on the NSW south coast have been withdrawn by state prosecutors.

Ms Black said the government was consulting with Aboriginal and industry stakeholders on a new abalone management framework while taking action to strengthen compliance and enforcement.

"We've recently tightened up the regulations around the purchase of fish through lawful supply chains. We're putting more resources into stopping illegal transactions," she said.

Email address