There have been 130 commercial fishing license holders apply to surrender their licenses as part of a $24.5 million reform of the marine scalefish fishery.
The deadline to submit applications was Friday, November 13, with 15 proposals received to surrender net licences and 115 to surrender line licences.
The 130 licence surrender proposals were submitted from right across the state, with 35 licence proposals from Gulf St Vincent license holders, four from South East licence holders, 66 from Spencer Gulf licence holders, and 25 from West Coast licence holders.
Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister David Basham said the licence surrender program was an important part of the reform, with the number of applications pleasing.
"We budgeted for up to 150 voluntary licence surrenders if licence holders wanted to go as part of our historic $24.5m reform of the marine scalefish fishery and to receive 130 applications from right across SA is a strong result," he said.
"Currently there are too many fishers and not enough fish and the voluntary licence surrender program is the first step in our vitally important reform process.
"It has been a challenging reform - for the fishers and their communities, but this reform was required to ensure we have profitable seafood businesses into the future, sustainable fish stocks and to give seafood consumers the confidence that if they buy seafood from SA, it is sustainable."
The fishery will be managed by individual quota, total allowable commercial catches and management zones on July 1 from next year.
- Details: pir.sa.gov.au/fishingreform
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