Murray Crayfish Part 3: Status assessment of Victorian recreational fishery

With the impacts (and fishing closures) occurring in New South Wales, Victoria now maintains the geographically largest recreational fishery for the species. With this in mind, it is timely that we have just finalised the most comprehensive assessment of the Victorian recreational fishery in Victoria ever undertaken.

The assessment relied on population benchmarking, assessment of long-term trends as well as modelling of newly amended length regulations. Long-term population declines were revealed at key sites, with healthy population now largely restricted to only three areas – encouragingly, population modelling indicates that the present length regulations are likely to be suitable to maintain these populations.

For more details, a copy of the status report is available here, on our publications page or by clicking on the report to the right.

This project was funded by the Victoran Government using Recreational Fishing Licence fees.