Recreational anglers across NSW are again pushing for the state to close a long-running mulloway loophole, this time after a Port Stephens ocean haul crew reportedly landed more than a tonne of fish in a single trip without breaking any rules.
The core of the issue lies in how the state's commercial mulloway trip limit is structured. The figure itself is not in dispute: ocean haul operators are capped at 200 kilograms of mulloway per trip, a limit cut from 500 kilograms in 2023 in a deliberate move to protect spawning stock of an iconic estuary fish. The minimum legal length of 70 centimetres has been in place since 2013.
The mechanic that has anglers furious is the per-endorsement application of that 200 kilogram cap. The trip limit applies to each individual endorsement holder, not to each vessel, and a single ocean haul boat can run with several endorsement holders aboard.
With five endorsements, a crew can lawfully bring a full tonne of mulloway to the wharf, with every individual technically inside their personal allowance. Fishing World reported that a recent Port Stephens trip did exactly that, weighing in roughly 100 fish above one tonne combined.
NSW has tried to tighten mulloway rules before. The most visible move came in 2018, when then-Fisheries Minister Niall Blair closed a separate loophole that had allowed mesh net operators to keep ten undersize mulloway, between 45 and 70 centimetres, per day as bycatch. Research at the time made clear that the practice had become deliberate juvenile targeting rather than incidental catch.
The 2023 cut from a 500 kilogram trip limit to 200 kilograms was framed as the next protective step. Anglers argue that the lack of an absolute per-vessel cap makes that step weaker than it looks on paper.
The second part of the problem is compliance. Mulloway in the ocean haul fishery do not have to be live-reported as they are caught, which leaves the regulator dependent on dockside inspections, weigh-in paperwork and post-hoc audits. Fishing World's reporting put it bluntly: with no live catch reporting on these fish, traceability becomes a nightmare for compliance unless an inspector happens to be on hand when the boat unloads.
Responsibility for any reform now sits with current NSW Fisheries Minister Tara Moriarty. Recreational and conservation groups are pressing for one of two changes, or ideally both: a hard per-vessel mulloway cap that closes the multi-endorsement workaround, and an extension of the live catch reporting model already used in other state fisheries.
The contrast with the recreational rule is what continues to drive the campaign. A NSW recreational angler is allowed two mulloway per day, and many fish a lifetime without ever cracking a metre-class jewfish off the rocks or a beach. A single ocean haul trip lawfully landing a tonne is hard to reconcile with that recreational settlement, even before the rules around how the catch is reported are taken into account.