As the news of selling illegal kingfish in Eden spread out State Fisheries has confirmed its commitment to guard illegal kingfish fishery from Narooma to Eden. Commercial fishers at Bermagui however say doing the wrong thing is not worth risking a licence, their fishery is sustainable and some of the biggest busts and ongoing issues involve recreational fishers.
State Fisheries has committed to comply with large undersize kingfish schools off Montague Island and south of Bermagui at the moment, as well as the busy holiday fishing season coming up. Fisheries official said that the commercial trap and line fishermen of the Far South Coast who target kingfish are subject to an extremely high level of regulation by fisheries officers and have been ever since the fishery developed many years ago.
According to the officials each operator is subject to a number of random inspections per year while fishing in the area between Narooma and Eden. They said that these inspections are thorough and cover everything from licensing, a boat search, gear legality through to the composition of the catch in terms of species, size and form, whether whole or illegally filleted.
