Mulloway are a highly regarded sportfish, targeted by recfishers along the Victorian coast – including Gippsland and Glenelg River estuaries as well as the Yarra and Maribyrnong river systems in Port Phillip and Western Port – and the species can reach 150cm and 30kg or more.
For those who know where to find them, mulloway are a fantastic target species for both catch and release and to keep for the dinner table.
Over recent years, passionate mulloway recfishers have voiced opinions that the current bag limit of five mulloway is too high and consider it as being more than a reasonable day’s take. Additionally, increasing the minimum size limit from 60cm to 70cm will give the species around 10 months further protection in estuaries and algin the limit with New South Wales.
The commercial harvest of mulloway in Victoria is currently around 50kg annually. However, in years where mulloway numbers are prolific the commercial harvest is higher.
In July, the Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA), proposed a Mulloway Improvement Program, consisting of short-, medium- and long-term fisheries management actions to improve Mulloway fishing in Victoria.
As the peak body for recreational fishing, VRFish consulted with Victorian recreational fishers via an online survey to identify if recreational fishers support the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s proposed Mulloway Improvement Program which includes changes to regulations.
The proposal was put forward as recreational fishers raised concerns that current recreational fishing regulations for the species are considered outdated, particularly the 5 fish per person per day bag limit, seen as beyond a reasonable day’s harvest for valued fish of such a large size.
The survey was open for a two-week period and recreational fishers were asked to answer nine questions including if they support the proposed regulations changes, restarting a mulloway tagging program and trialling a mulloway stocking program as proposed in the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s proposed Mulloway Improvement Program.
A total of 502 respondents participated in the survey. VRFish distributed the survey via our website, social media, and an email invitation sent to VRFish members and subscribers including our database of recreational fishing licence holders.
Of the survey respondents, 82% recreationally fish for mulloway and most commonly target mulloway 10+ days per year (31%). When asked about the proposed actions within the Mulloway Improvement Program, we found that majority of recreational fishers are supportive of:
- Changing the daily bag limit for mulloway from 5 to 2 per person per day (91%)
- Increasing the minimum size limit from 60cm to 70cm (84%)
- Restarting a Victorian mulloway tagging program (93%)
- Introducing a mulloway stocking program (97%)
Additionally, majority of recreational fishers were supportive of making mulloway a recreational only species (84%).
When analysing the data further, we found that those who identified as mulloway fishers in Q1 were slightly more supportive of the proposed changes to bag limits (92%), increased size limit (85%), a mulloway tagging program (94%), and a mulloway stocking program (97%). Additionally, those who identified as mulloway fishers were supportive of mulloway being a recreational only species (87%).
The feedback from the survey will be used to form the VRFish submission to the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s public consultation regarding the Mulloway Improvement Program.
