On Sunday 7 December, the Northern Territory Government put out a press release announcing new stock assessments for Golden Snapper and Black Jewfish. While updated recreational fishing catch data beyond 2022 was not available, these assessments take into account new commercial and FTO data, new modelling, revised assumptions and recalibrated historical catch and effort data.
The latest assessments put Golden Snapper stocks in the greater Darwin region at only 14% of unfished levels, well below the harvest strategy limit of 30% (and below the generally accepted depleted stock limit of 20%). For Jewfish in the Darwin region the assessment puts stocks at 41% of unfished levels, one percent above the harvest strategy trigger but well below the current stock target of 60% – And things could be worse at Channel Point where the most productive jewfish aggregation has been closed to Commercial operators and Fishing Tours, with recreational fishers urged to avoid fishing in the area.
In the press release delivering the new stock assessments, Deputy Chief Minister & Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Gerard Maley also referred to plans for fish stocking, FADs and the creation of new reefs for Golden Snapper habitat (these were first revealed by the Minister at the AFANT AGM last month). Minister Maley said, “the next step is delivering a comprehensive recovery plan for inshore reef fish, developed in partnership with key fishing stakeholders including AFANT, the NTGFIA, the NT Seafood Council and the Northern Land Council”.
It is expected that a draft recovery plan will be released for public consultation in early 2026. This follows on from three meetings of the Recreational Sector Golden Snapper Working Group in October (the EOI to register be a part of this was sent to members in June). A meeting of a new Coastal Line Fishery Advisory Group is scheduled for December 12, with AFANT’s CEO David Ciaravolo appointed one of the 5 expert members (2x commercial, 1x recreational, 1x fishing tourism, 1x Aboriginal Traditional).
As the peak body for recreational fishing, we want fishing to be sustainable into the future, and we want Territorians and visitors be able to enjoy great Territory fishing experiences. We are committed to ensuring that any reef fish recovery plan is focussed on practical, realistic and suitably scaled sustainability objectives, while simultaneously investing in collecting better data and implementing measures designed to mitigate the otherwise potentially severe social and economic impacts.
We also know that recreational fishers are keen to play their part and we (including our members and partners) are well placed to help facilitate and optimise the positive contribution that our community and industry can make to reef fish recovery. We expect to see genuine investment in peer-led stewardship initiatives and citizen science partnerships. Both of these are investments that AFANT has been pursuing for some time.
AFANT will continue to keep you updated on progress toward the recovery plan in 2026. We will also be reaching out to you as we conduct further research and seek your input on the recovery plan (including the measures already announced). We take this opportunity to make it clear that at this stage AFANT has not yet endorsed any strategies or steps in a future recovery plan.
All feedback is most welcome…There has been considerable discussion on our Facebook post about this topic in recent days, please feel free to join the conversation there!
What can you do to play your part, for now?
Actively Support Reef Fish Recovery
- Don’t kiss them and put them back! Remind your fishing mates that reef fish are not suitable for targeted catch and release fishing because they suffer poor post release survival compared with other fish.
- Don’t release Golden Snapper or Jewfish in more than 10m of water, and move on to another type of fishing (like chasing pelagics or barra) once you’ve caught a feed or your limit – even if the fish are small – limits are not negotiable
- Consider releasing small Golden Snapper caught in shallow water (e.g. estuaries and rock bars less than 10m deep) – we need smaller snapper to live on and grow into big snapper (only do this if the fish looks healthy and was shallow (mouth) hooked, in shallow water).
- Learn to target, process, cook or prepare tasty pelagic fish including mackerel, trevally, tuna and queenfish – these fish stocks are abundant around Darwin and people around the world enjoy the eating qualities of these fish when prepared in a variety of ways
- Know the rules: Stop all reef fishing when you’ve caught your limit and never fish inside reef fish protection areas. Report suspicious activity to Fishwatch 1800 891 136 (save the number it in your phone now)
- Avoid Channel Point during the Jewfish closure (until at least 28 February 2026)
- Avoid attracting sharks; Use suitably strong gear to land your catch as quickly as possible. Don’t persist at a fishing a spot if sharks are stealing your hooked fish. Clean your catch away from the fishing grounds & only discard fish waste overboard while motoring underway.
A bit more on the Stock Assessments (for those who like the details):
New approaches taken in the modelling for both stock assessments have painted a picture of long-term depletion that is worse and more prolonged than what was previously published by the Department. While this may surprise some fishers, according to NT Fisheries, Golden Snapper have been at depleted (20%) levels since the year 2000 and below the current limit threshold (30%) since back in the mid 1990s.
New: 2024 Golden Snapper Stock Assessment (released Dec 2025)
Contrast: 2021 Golden Snapper Stock Assessment (released Nov 2024)
For Black Jewfish, the new modelling says that stocks were fished to their lowest levels between 2004/5- 2008/9 and have been very slow to recover since. This is despite jewfish reaching 90cm and maturity at only 2 years of age. While many fishers have been concerned about the quality of jewfish fishing over recent years, this finding may still come as something of a surprise given that back in 2019 the Department’s own modelling put the stock at an “optimistic” 93% of unfished levels; so, we can see that a lot has changed with the latest stock estimates.
New: 2023/24 Black Jewfish Stock Assessment (released Dec 2025)
Contrast: 2019 Black Jewfish Stock Assessment (released 2020)
It should be noted that the scientists involved have produced thorough stock assessment reports spanning almost 100 pages each. The reports offer more transparency than previous NT stock assessment (some of which were never fully made public). The reports also explain the approaches that were taken with regard to the inclusion of biological data, the performance data used, and each report contains several modelled alternative input scenarios that lead to the selection of the base case scenarios that were ultimately decided upon to produce the headline stock estimates.
Of course, the above acknowledgement is not the same as saying there isn’t considerable room for more robust and better-informed stock estimates in the future. It’s also not the case that we necessarily support all of the assumptions made on the input side. Some fishers may note that the assessments seem to reflect the experience of fishing in some areas more so than others (especially more remote areas within the greater Darwin Region where catches tend to be much better). However, future improvements in stock assessments will require better inputs in terms of performance data (catch and effort) and better biological knowledge/data – especially for Golden Snapper. Greater investment in monitoring and data collection will need to be factored into any proposed recovery plan.
Want to know more? Read the reports for yourself:
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