History of Australia's South East Fishery: a scientist's perspective

The South East Fishery is one of Australia’s oldest fisheries. Early research on this trawl fishery centred on tiger flathead, the major target species. In the 1970s, the Federal Government actively encouraged fishery development and funded several trawl surveys. Profitable catch rates and optimistic assessments of resource size caused a rapid expansion of the trawl fleet. Separate jurisdictions hampered strategic approaches to SEF-wide research...