What are the Status of Australian Fish Stock Reports

The Status of Australian Fish Stock Reports assess the biological sustainability of a broad range of wild-caught fish stocks against a nationally agreed framework. The reports examine whether the abundance of fish and the level of harvest from the stock are sustainable.

The 2024 reports (6^th edition) examined 155 species; approximately 90% of the total of Australia species commercially fished.

More details about Australian fisheries are available here.

Developed in 2012, the Status of Australian Fish Stock Reports were the first to span across all jurisdictions to provide comparable results across Australia. Previously, each state, territory and the Commonwealth would use a variety of approaches to carry out their own assessment. The lack of consistency across jurisdictions made comparisons of fish stock health difficult, and stocks that either straddled state borders, or were captured in both state and Commonwealth-managed fisheries, proved challenging to manage.

International relevance

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is working towards achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals. When assessing Australia’s progress towards Goal number 14 (“Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”), the United Nations refers to the latest edition of the Status of Australian Fish Stock Reports.

History of the reports

The Status of Australian Fish Stocks Reports (SAFS) 2024 builds on the previous five editions of the reports produced since 2012, with minor alterations occurring during this time to the national stock status classification framework and the content of species chapters.

The 6^th edition sees the addition of seven new species, which were nominated by FRDC and Jurisdictions—states and the Northern Territory.

The 2024 reports focus solely on the status of fish stocks. The status classifications do not consider broader ecosystem impacts of fishing or social and economic considerations that some consumers may be interested in.

Since the 2014 SAFS report, FRDC took over the management, development and production from the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARES). This saw FRDC undertake an independent audit of SAFS, detailed engagement and consultation with the Status of Australian Fish Stocks Reports Advisory Group; regular meetings with the SAFS Advisory Group to ensure continual improvement of processes; coordination with author teams and data providers; technical review of individual species chapters; continued coordination of the external peer review process; and the construction of a new data driven website.

A data driven website

This website is a step change in both the design and construction. A great deal of effort has gone into developing a platform that is driven by the raw data provided by each jurisdiction around Australia. 

From the outset there has been an aspiration to report on stock status trends across editions, to illustrate progress against typical performance measures for a stock status reporting system such as SAFS.

As part of delivering the sixth edition of SAFS, work has been completed to map and show trends of species going from being depleted back to sustainable and vice versa.

The Key results page includes a number of the notable species and their status changes. Additionally in the Data Tools section users can look at all changes.