Fishing and Aquaculture Industry

South Coast towns are calling for more funding to cope with a surge of recreational fishers as the region prepares to shut down recreational and commercial fishing.

An important apex predator died out 100 years ago due to overfishing and land clearing. Now, a close relative is bringing balance back to the habitat.

Underwater vision of Mary River Cod fingerlings in a dam.

Mary River cod were fished to the brink of extinction, their habitat destroyed, even blasted with gelignite, but a recovery plan is being updated.

Manila's coastguard says nearly two dozen Philippine fishing boats near Sabina Shoal were targeted with water cannon and blocking manoeuvres on Friday.

When the Oldano brothers are not busy working on the family cane and papaya farm in Far North Queensland, they are out on the boat casting a line, a hobby they have made commercially viable.

WA fishers are raising concerns about a lack of mental health support as the commercial industry comes to terms with a ban on demersal fishing.

A salmon company gave Tasmanian authorities a week's notice before it planned to start using a new antibiotic in the state's waterways to combat a disease outbreak, sparking a strong rebuke from the industry regulator.

White spot disease in prawns has led the NSW government to issue a new, five-year control order which will ban the sale of green prawns caught in affected waters.

WA food ambassador Don Hancey says there are plenty of other local fish in WA waters as the government's ban on catching demersal varieties looms.

The federal government is being accused of allowing "trade to trump biosecurity", over proposed changes critics claim will "weaken" and "roll back" testing of potentially diseased raw prawn imports.

New fishing rules come into effect in Western Australia next month, significantly reducing the amount of local fish available in the state. 

Strict bans limiting commercial and recreational fishing in Perth and WA are announced in an effort to save some under-threat fish species from the brink of collapse.

Two Ulladulla fishermen have been charged under federal sea-dumping laws over the alleged deliberate sinking of an unseaworthy trawler. 

The company was sentenced to pay the fine, with the chief executive also given a $60,000 penalty as well as payment of court costs for the environmental breach. 

The South Australian opposition has pledged a $21-million voluntary fisheries buyback scheme, if it is elected next year, to allow commercial fishers to leave the industry amid the harmful algal bloom.

The Tasmanian government closed two zones within the state's rock lobster fishery just hours after the commercial season opened. The closure is in response to concerns about an antibiotic being used by salmon companies and the rock lobster industry's reputation in overseas markets.

A salmon mass mortality event caused by a bacterial outbreak has given scientists "a lot of genetic knowledge" to put to use in a selective breeding program.

An Australian Border Force vessel has docked in Broome carrying four fishing boats, prompting anger from the fishing industry over a government scheme that gives illegal fishers boats to return home in.

Tasmanian regulators question major salmon farm operator Huon Aquaculture about the effectiveness of its "predator" nets after a spate of dolphin deaths.