Agriculture Minister Mark Furner has rejected calls for an inquiry into fisheries management, instead opting to tighten regulations governing the wild harvesting of Spanish mackerel by commercial and recreational fishers.

Commercial fishers will have a reduced ‘total allowable catch’ each year starting next July, while recreational fishing for Spanish mackerel will be permitted for 46 weeks of the year with a bag limit of one per person or two per boat.

Furner said the changes were necessary to restore depleted stocks in waters off the coast and to safeguard the industry’s long-term future.

His decision to close seasons for three weeks in the state’s north from next month and in the state’s south for the same period in February next year, rebuffs the call from the Queensland Seafood Industry Association to hold a commission of inquiry into the sector’s management.

The Brisbane-based industry group has expressed via a petition that the “seafood catching sector has lost confidence in the management of our fisheries resources”.

“Our loss of confidence is based on the potential collective loss of access to our marine resources for recreational and commercial fishers and the Queensland community,” their petition read.

“An important example of this loss of confidence is the potential loss of, or extremely restricted access to, the Queensland Spanish mackerel fishery to both recreational and commercial fishers and critically, the Queensland community.”

But Furner has warned that failing to take action on reducing pressure on Spanish mackerel would risk “far more significant economic impacts” for the seafood supply chain as well as the tourism and hospitality sectors and the broader community.

“There is a real risk of further biomass decline and potential collapse,” Furner said in his response to the petition.

The tension comes as a commercial fisher was fined $12,500 in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on September 9 for removing crabs from a designated ‘no take’ area where fishing and crabbing is prohibited.

The fisher was caught by Marine Park rangers in a covert sting after locating their crab pot in waters off St Helena Island three days before Christmas in 2020.

The Court found that the fisher had intended to take the crabs, ordering them to also pay $2625 in legal costs and $746.50 in investigation costs. No conviction was recorded.