More than seven years after NSW closed one mulloway bycatch loophole, recreational fishers and conservation groups say a second is being openly worked around the state's commercial fleet, with a single ocean haul crew reportedly landing more than a tonne of fish in one trip out of Port Stephens.
Mulloway have a minimum legal length of 70 centimetres in NSW, set in 2013, and a 500 kilogram trip limit for ocean haul operators that was tightened to 200 kilograms in 2023. The intent of the smaller bag is to limit ocean haul fleet pressure on a slow-growing iconic estuary species that recreational anglers across the eastern seaboard chase as a true trophy fish.
The practical problem, anglers and observers say, is that the 200 kilogram trip limit is not enforced per crew. It is enforced per endorsement holder, and a single ocean haul vessel can carry several endorsement holders.
That distinction allows a boat carrying multiple endorsed crew to multiply the trip allowance, with a five-endorsement crew effectively able to land a full tonne while every individual on board still complies with the headline 200 kilogram limit. According to Fishing World's report, a recent Port Stephens trip landed roughly 100 fish weighing more than a tonne combined, all under the existing rules.
The history of mulloway management in NSW has been a slow tightening rather than a sharp reset. The first major lever was pulled in 2018 by then-Fisheries Minister Niall Blair, who closed an earlier loophole that had allowed mesh net operators to retain ten undersize mulloway between 45 and 70 centimetres each day as bycatch, despite scientific evidence that the take involved deliberate targeting of juvenile fish.
The 2023 reduction of the ocean haul limit from 500 kilograms to 200 kilograms was framed as the next step in protecting spawning stock. Recreational and conservation voices argue that without an absolute per-vessel cap, the 2023 change does not deliver what it was sold on.
Compliance is the second pressure point. Mulloway in this fishery are not subject to live catch reporting, which means the regulator depends on dockside checks, paperwork and post-hoc audits to verify what has been landed. Fishing World described the result bluntly: with no live catch reporting on the species, traceability and ever knowing how many were really caught becomes a nightmare for compliance unless inspectors happen to be on the wharf at the moment of unloading.
The new pressure is squarely on the office of current NSW Fisheries Minister Tara Moriarty, who inherited the file when she took the portfolio. Recreational angling groups want either a hard per-vessel mulloway cap, an extension of the live catch reporting framework already used for other species, or both.
For anglers who pursue mulloway from Sydney's harbour washes, Hawkesbury rock walls or Hunter region beaches, the underlying complaint is straightforward. Recreational rules cap a single angler at two fish per day in NSW. The contrast with a tonne of mulloway across one trip, lawful under the per-endorsement structure, is what is fuelling the renewed push for reform.