Fishing ban extended to protect blue gropers in NSW

The ban on fishing eastern blue gropers in NSW will be extended by three years after research showing the population of the beloved fish has plummeted in Greater Sydney.

The announcement by NSW Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty comes at the 11th hour before the 12-month trial prohibiting recreational fishing of blue gropers by line or rod was due to expire. The fish were already protected from spearfishing since 1969 and from commercial fishing since 1980.

The eastern blue groper is the state fish of NSW.Credit: NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

Moriarty said there was high community interest in the fate of the blue groper, the official state fish of NSW, and “a community expectation that we take every step possible to understand any potential impacts that climate change may be having on the species”.

Moriarty said she knew some fishers would be disappointed, but also that many in the NSW community wanted to see the fish protected, as they are in Victoria.

“Three further years of scientific monitoring will deliver a deeper level of understanding of how this wonderful fish is coping with warming conditions and what impact those conditions are having on the population, particularly in our inshore waters where people interact with the eastern blue groper,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty announced the trial ban a year ago after community outrage when a spearfisher killed “Gus”, a blue groper, in Cronulla, and another person speared three blue gropers in Jervis Bay. Government records show there are usually two or three dozen offences involving people killing blue gropers every year, attracting a mix of cautions, fines or prosecutions.

Blue gropers are a hermaphrodite species. Functional females become males as they grow in size – up to 1.2 metres long. They are named for the bright cobalt blue of the male form, while they are brown as females.

The fish are a slow-growing species – they take 10 years to reach sexual maturity and can live for up to 35 years – making them vulnerable to over-fishing.

With a great size and brilliant colour, blue gropers are also friendly to humans, making them beloved of divers and snorkellers in shallow reefs off Sydney and elsewhere on the NSW coast, but also making them vulnerable to spearfishers.

The penalty for taking a blue groper by any method is a $500 penalty infringement notice, or maximum court-imposed fines of $22,000 or imprisonment for six months for a first offence and double that for a subsequent offence. Any blue groper caught while line fishing must be released.

Moriarty’s decision follows research by scientists at the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development who published their findings in the CSIRO peer-reviewed journal Marine and Freshwater Research this month.

The scientists found the blue groper population was stable for NSW overall, but had declined by about 50 per cent in shallow reefs in Greater Sydney and the Mid North Coast. The numbers were better in deep reefs than shallow reefs and also on the South Coast, suggesting the fish were seeking cooler waters.

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