Commercial Fish Production

Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA, est. 2016) is a statutory authority with the responsibility of managing and developing Victoria’s fisheries resources in a coordinated and strategic way to ensure their ongoing sustainability. The VFA work with government, stakeholders and the community to optimize the social, cultural and economic benefits of Victoria’s commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture and recreational boating sectors and ensure that demand for resources and infrastructure can be sustainably supported into the future.

Victoria’s commercial fisheries began at the time of European settlement during the 1840s. These fisheries have been managed under various Fisheries Acts since 1859 with fishery catch data collected continuously since 1911. Catch statistic data are used by various stakeholders for assessing stock status, fisheries management, economic analyses, scientific research etc. Since June 1978, catch and effort data has been collected and stored in secure electronic databases with data, statistics and summaries extracted and utilised according.

A commercial fishing licence, issued by the VFA, allows individuals or businesses to legally catch fish for profit. The VFA issues three different classes of commercial fishery licence.
●Access Licence (wild catch)
●Aquaculture Licence (in private or Crown waters)
●Fisher Receiver Licence for abalone fisheries (information not provided below)
There are currently 523 Fishery Access Licences, and 7,198 Southern Rock Lobster Pot Licences issued in Victoria and 100 Aquaculture Licences (see below).

Catch and Effort Data Acquisition
Under theFisheries Act 1995,lodgement of catch and effort return forms is a condition of a Fishery Access and Aquaculture licence. Individual returns are collected under Section 146 of the Act and are treated confidentially according to the Fisheries Act 1995 and the Information Privacy Act 2000. Depending on the fishery, catch and effort information is currently required to be reported by commercial operators in hard copy or electronic form to the VFA. Data is either entered manually or extracted from a secure server, audited and checked for erroneous inconsistencies prior to producing extracts or summaries. Data is released in aggregated form only. To preserve confidentiality, data is not reported if less than five licence holders have contributed to it.

This information bulletin is designed to meet the data needs of the fishing industry, fishery researchers, the Victorian Fisheries Authority, the Victorian Government, the Commonwealth Government, and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Catch and effort statistics for the Fishery Access and Aquaculture Licences form the content of this Bulletin.

To view a PDF of the 2023/24 bulletin, click here

To view a PDF of the 2022/23 bulletin, click here

To view a PDF of the 2021/22 bulletin, click here (PDF - 619.0 KB) .

To view a PDF of the 2020/21 bulletin, click here. (PDF - 598.2 KB)

To view a PDF of the 2019/20 bulletin, click here.  (PDF - 601.7 KB)

To view a PDF of the 2018/19 bulletin, click here. (PDF - 598.6 KB)