At a glance

The fishery for scallops in Bass Strait is divided into three zones, of which the Commonwealth manages the Central Zone.

The remaining zones, which are located generally 20 nm off the coasts of Victoria and Tasmania, are managed by those States respectively under Offshore Constitutional Settlement agreements.

At a glance
Principal Species Commercial Scallops (Pecten fumatus)
Byproduct Species Doughboy Scallop (Chlamys asperrimus)
Fishing Technique Harvested from muddy to coarse sandy bottoms using a towed dredge.
Jurisdiction Offshore Constitutional Settlement Arrangements finalised in June 1986 rationalised the jurisdiction for Bass Strait scallops. AFMA manages the Commonwealth Central Zone of Bass Strait, between the zones managed by Victoria and Tasmania that lie within 20nm of their respective coasts.
Number of Concessions There are a total of 455,000 Commercial Scallop quota SFRs and 455,000 Doughboy Scallop quota SFRs. Public SFR registers document individual or total SFR amounts owned and held, as well as any 3rd party interest(s) registered in respect of those SFRs.
Estimated Catch 2008-09 = 594 tonnes
Estimated  Value of Production 2008-09 = $1,163,000
Main Markets Domestic and historically France, Hong Kong and the United States of America.
Stock Status The 2005 Ministerial Direction required AFMA to set the TAC for Commercial and Doughboy Scallops at zero for a minimum of three years from January 2006, excluding official stock surveys. The Ministerial Direction also required the development of harvest strategies for all Commonwealth managed fisheries.Prior to this, the fishery was considered to be overfished (2007 BRS Fishery Status Report). At that time, the only known aggregation of scallops in the fishery was east of Flinders Island which was closed to fishing in 2001 and 2002. Surveys of the closed area in 2000-2003 showed an increase in both the number and distribution of scallops. Because there was some recruitment to the closed bed, AFMA allowed fishing to resume in part of the area from 2003-2005.

Results from a survey conducted in late 2008 indicate that there has been significant rebuilding of the Commercial Scallop stock in the eastern region of the BSCZSF since the fishery was closed under Ministerial Direction in January 2006. These scallops are now being managed under a comprehensive Harvest Strategy developed for the fishery.

It should be noted that scallops experience naturally variable abundance and mortality.
Management Method The Harvest Strategy in combination with the Management Plan and the Regulations prescribe a detailed closed area spatial management regime, where the majority of the fishery is closed to commercial fishing and only discrete areas are open to harvesting.
The Harvest Strategy contains rules that control the intensity of fishing activity according to the biological and economic conditions of the fishery, as determined through stock surveys:

  • TACs – set annually for the entire fishery equating to the estimated biomass of the area(s) that are to be opened to fishing. A default TAC of 100 tonnes applies to Doughboy Scallops;
  • Defined fishing season –provides protection during peak spat settlement periods over summer;
  • Minimum size limit – 90 mm;
  • Discard rate – area(s) that are to be opened to commercial fishing must have a discard rate of less than 20% of undersized scallops, unless scallops have been known to have completed at least two major spawnings;
  • Area openings – all areas of the fishery remain closed unless opening criteria are met; and
  • Opening criteria – spatially there must be more than one viable area (in terms of size, discard rate and density) with more than 40% of viable areas to remain closed, containing not less than 500 tonnes. If there are only two viable areas, the smaller of the areas are to be opened.

AFMA has produced a Guide to the 2011 Management arrangements (845kb) for the fishery, which was distributed to all SFR holders in May 2009.
Environment or Bycatch Issues A Bycatch and Discarding Work Plan (previously known as a bycatch action plan (BAP) was developed for the fishery in early 2009. This Work Plan outlines the strategies and actions AFMA will use to address bycatch issues, in particular for those species identified for priority management through the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) process.
Consultative Forum Bass Strait Central Zone Scallop Fishery Management Advisory Committee (ScallopMAC) replaced the Bass Strait Central Zone Scallop Fishery Consultative Committee in 2000.