Commercial fishers are disappointed with the state’s decision to continue a ban on scallop fishing between Hervey Bay and Yeppoon.
After four years harvesting will now resume to the north but will remain off limits for southern grounds for at least another 12 months, impacting ports at Yeppoon, Gladstone, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay.
David Bobbermen from the Queensland Seafood Industry Association says they would have liked a solution to get the iconic Hervey Bay scallops back on the table..
“Trawl operators I have spoken to, along with seafood processors and marketers, are very disappointed with this decision.
“We would have preferred a cautious re-opening of the grounds so that fishers could explore and see what scallops are out there.
“The scallop population in what is called the ‘southern inshore region’ was previously calculated to be around 15 per cent of what it would have been without any fishing and the Queensland Government wants this to be at least 20 per cent of the ‘unfished population’ before re-opening the fishery.
“The harvesting of scallops there was banned in September 2021.
“It’s hard to believe that, after four years with no harvesting of scallops, the population has not moved from 15 per cent to at least 20 per cent.
“There was a short survey in 2025 but allowing boats to cautiously explore for scallops, with daily monitoring, would be a more effective way of discovering what quantity of scallops might be out there.”
Mr Bobbermen says scallop populations historically had fluctuated widely from one season to the next and they were difficult to predict.
“A year ago, trawlers catching prawns in the same region were catching and releasing large quantities of scallops, indicating a sizeable population. Have these scallops simply disappeared?”
“The QSIA will continue talking to the Queensland Government about scallop management to try to find a more sophisticated solution to this issue.”
