This report provides an assessment of the social and economic status and performance of Tasmanian fisheries and aquaculture, 2017/18 to 2020/21. Tasmania’s fisheries and aquaculture sectors (i.e., commercial, recreational and Tasmanian Aboriginal businesses and users) are important parts of the Tasmanian economy and broader community and generate a diverse range of social and economic benefits.

Achieving economic and social benefits from marine resources is an objective of fisheries and marine farming (aquaculture) management in Tasmania, as outlined in the Living Marine Resources Management Act 1995 (hereafter referred to as LMRMA) and the Marine Farming Planning Act 1995 (hereafter referred to as the MFPA).

The indicators used in this assessment reflect this legislative objective as well as best-practice (for example, see NOAA Fisheries Socioeconomics, PIRSA Social and Economic Assessments). They were chosen to be relevant to managing sector-wide and community outcomes from these fisheries and aquaculture activities.

This report does not attempt to benchmark performance. It is intended to inform industry and sector representative organisations, government agencies with policy and regulatory responsibilities, other marine research groups, and interested members of the Tasmanian community, of social and economic outcomes and change in those outcomes across time.

This is the first assessment report of this type. It follows from an initial pilot assessment of Tasmanian fisheries (Ogier et al. 2018) and is intended to be one of a series. The period of time covered by this assessment (2017/18 - 2020/21) encompasses both the period prior to and across the COVID-19 pandemic. The impacts of the pandemic on economic and social indicators for these sectors is therefore captured.

This assessment encompasses commercial, recreational, and Tasmanian Aboriginal community sectors using managed marine resources. The findings are based on a range of assessment and research activities undertaken by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) of the University of Tasmania.

Specific fisheries and aquaculture sectors assessed are: Tasmanian Abalone Fishery, Tasmanian Giant Crab Fishery, Tasmanian Rock Lobster Fishery, Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery, Tasmanian Scallop Fishery, Tasmanian Abalone Aquaculture, Tasmanian Pacific Oyster Aquaculture and Tasmanian Salmonid Aquaculture.