Flathead showing recovery signs

SAND flathead stocks are starting to recover in Tasmania after size and bag limit changes were introduced to improve numbers almost three years ago.

The Mercury has exclusively obtained the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies’ Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery Assessment 2016-2017, which revealed the condition of the state’s fishery.

Sand flathead, which makes up 90 per cent of the total recreational catch of flathead species, was assessed as “depleting” for the third consecutive year — the level above “overfished”.

However, IMAS research scientist and report co-author Jeremy Lyle said the species was showing signs of recovery after size limits rose to 320mm and bag limits dropped to 20 fish per person per day in November 2015. But Dr Lyle said while scientists had noticed signs of improvement, they weren’t confident enough to classify the species as “recovering”, which is the level below “sustainable”.

“If the trend last year continues then we will be more confident of moving out of de- pleting to recovering,” he said.

The report also found bastard trumpeter and blue warehou are overfished, while other depleting species included banded morwong and southern garfish. Sustainable species were Australian salmon, tiger flathead, Gould’s squid, jack mackerel, jackass morwong, yelloweye mullet, eastern school whiting, southern calamari and wrasse.