Australian fisheries and aquaculture statistics contains comprehensive information on wild-catch commercial fishing and aquaculture in Australia covering seafood production, trade data, consumption and employment statistics. The report is aimed at providing statistical information for the fishing and aquaculture industry, fisheries managers, policy makers and researchers.
AFAS has been published by ABARES since 1991 and is one of several ABARES publications that provide annual economic updates for Australia’s fishery and aquaculture industry. Estimates of gross production value (GVP) in the report are used for various purposes, including to determine Commonwealth, state and territory fisheries research funding arrangements each year.
An overview of economic concepts in Australian fisheries and aquaculture statistics is included to better communicate and clarify definitions and methodologies used for this report.
Small discrepancies in totals for the data products associated with this report are generally caused by the rounding of components. A dash (–) is used to denote a nil or negligible amount.
Consistent with ABARES commodity reporting, value data less than 100 are rounded to one decimal place and value data equal to or greater than 100 are rounded to the nearest integer.
Treatment of double counting for Southern Bluefin Tuna
Southern Bluefin Tuna sold from the farms in South Australia is reported at its full market value. However, the input value of those Tunas is also included as an output from the Commonwealth Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery. To avoid double counting, the input value is netted out of Australian totals.
Confidential data
For this publication some data is confidential. State and Commonwealth jurisdictions generally do not publish GVP information for species that are caught by less than five operators in a given fishing season. Catch data may also be confidential for the same reason. Confidentiality may also apply to some aquaculture operations. Confidential data is masked in this publication by grouping in “other” categories and is appropriately noted where confidentiality applies.
Commercial species names referred to in this publication comply with the Australian Fish Names Standard AS SSA 5300-2019. In this report standard fish names for groups of species or species families are not capitalised and employ the use of initial capital letters. For a list showing previously used fish names against the fish names now used in this report, see Fish name concordance.
Rock Lobsters
The terms Rock Lobsters in this publication refers to species of the Palinuridae family including the Western Rock Lobster (caught predominantly along the west coast of Western Australia), Southern Rock Lobster (caught predominantly along the southern coastline of South Australia and Victoria and along the coastline of Tasmania), Eastern Rock Lobster (caught predominantly off the coast of New South Wales), Ornate Rock Lobster (caught predominantly in the Torres Strait Tropical Rock Lobster Fishery and northern Queensland) and species from the Champagne Group (caught predominantly in northern Queensland).
Prawn and Prawns
The term Prawn and Prawns in this publication refers to all species included in the SFN Prawns Group (species of the scientific Penaeoidea & Caridea family), the Red Prawn, Giant Scarlet Prawn and Pink Striped Prawn (all three of these species belong to the scientific Aristeidae family), Royal Red Prawn (Solenoceridae family), species from the SFN Freshwater Prawns Group (Palaemonidae family), and Red Carid Prawn and White Carid Prawn (both species belonging to the Pandalidae family).
Oysters
In this publication the term Oysters refers solely to edible oysters which refers to species of the Ostreidae family, including Pacific Oyster (produced predominantly in South Australia and Tasmania) and Sydney Rock Oyster (produced in New South Wales). Oysters used for producing pearl products are referred to as Pearl Oysters, species from the Pteriidae family. Pearl Oysters meat is not separately identified in the pearl sector.
Sharks & Rays
The term Sharks & Rays in this publication refers to the group of cartilaginous fish species from the Elasmobranchii (Sharks, Skates and Rays) and Holocephali (chimaera) sub classes of the taxonomic Chondrichthyes class.
Salmonids
The term Salmonids in this publication refers to species from the Salmonidae family, including Atlantic Salmon, Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout. In Australia predominantly Atlantic Salmon is produced.