Key results

Australia’s fish stocks are well-managed and a majority are healthy, with almost 86% of assessed stocks classified sustainable or recovering. 

In total one hundred and forty-eight (148) species were reviewed for the 2020 Reports (5th edition):- for ease of sorting and presenting the data you can also download an XLSX spreadsheet of results.

The 2020 Reports assessed 25 new species, including Australian Bonito, Cobia, Trumpeter Whiting, Ruby Snappers, Western Rock Octopus, Golden Perch, Longfin and Southern Shortfin Eels, Ocean Surf Crab, Hammer Octopus, and Greenback Flounder.

• One hundred and forty-eight species were assessed across Australia. 
• Twenty-five new species were added in the 2020 Reports. 
• SAFS now includes eight prawn species, comprising 37 stocks. Of these 37 stocks, 30 were assessed as sustainable (81 per cent), one stock (Western King Prawn on South Australia’s west coast) is depleting, four are undefined, and two were assessed as negligible, with low catches.  
• SAFS 2020 includes six whiting species (Eastern School, King George, Sand, Stout, Trumpeter and Yellowfin Whiting). Almost all whiting stocks were assessed as sustainable, except for the Queensland jurisdictional stock of the newly added Trumpeter Whiting, which was undefined. 
• Spanner Crab is assessed as sustainable. 
• Western Rock Octopus, a sustainable species caught using highly selective trigger traps, is reported for the first time in SAFS 2020. 
• Stocks of all four lobster species were assessed as sustainable, except for the Western Australian stock of Ornate Rock Lobster, which was assessed as negligible (small catches not warranting assessment). 
• Three hundred and seventy-one (371) stocks were able to be assessed out of the four hundred and seventy-seven stocks (477) across the species.
  • 302 stocks are classified as sustainable 
  • 16 stocks are classified as recovering 
  • 17 stocks are classified as depleting, and 
  • 36 stocks are classified as depleted. Importantly all have recovery management plans in place that aim to rebuild the stocks.

There were 70 stocks classified as undefined and a further 36 classified as negligible. The undefined stock classification does not necessarily mean that the stock is at increased risk; it means that there is limited or conflicting information available to undertake the assessment. Stocks classified as negligible are unlikely to be at risk due to their very small size. 

There were 174 stock status assessments at the biological stock level, 159 at the management unit level and 144 at the jurisdiction level. 

The reports account for a majority of the Australian caught fish that Australians will eat. The total volume of commercial catch reported in the 2020 Reports was 146,941 tonnes. This is an increase of approximately 4,600 tonnes on the volume assessed in the 2018 Reports. 

Monitoring species recovery

A goal of the Status Reports has been to report on stock status trends over time. Fisheries and the marine environment are constantly changing. They are dynamic systems and the reports provide an insight into how species are faring and where management controls are needed, for example, to reduce catch or to protect fish during spawning. 

In 2020, we mark the fifth edition, and almost ten years of SAFS reporting. This timeframe enables us to detect trends of species going from depleted back to sustainable and vice versa—sustainable going to depleted. This timeseries of stock-status trends, formulated using a nationally consistent and transparent framework, will increase in value with each SAFS edition.  

One key species where we have seen such a movement is Southern Bluefin Tuna. After more than twenty years it moved from depleted to recovering in 2018, and has retained the recovering status in 2020. Recent assessments have shown clear progress towards the rebuilding target set by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) to guide the recovery of the biological stock to 20 per cent of unfished biomass by 2035. We are not there yet, but from all accounts we are well on our way to achieving that target before 2035. 

Below are some of the species that have changed over the past three years. 

Improving

Depleting