Economic Impacts - Draft Zoning Plan Jervis Bay Marine Park

2. Commercial Fishing2.1 Description of JBMP Commercial FishingJervis Bay is an important habitat for fish recruitment to the surrounding commercialfisheries. Only limited commercial fishing occurs in JBMP and much of it is for bait(AgEconPlus 2008).NSW I&I data for Ocean Zone 8 relates to NSW ocean waters between S35o (immediatelynorth of Currarong), and S36o (south of Moruya). This area includes, but is not limited to,the JBMP has yielded approximately 1,830 tonne of production with an annual averagemarket value of $5.4 million between 1997‐98 and 2008‐09 1 .Table2.1Commercial Wild Harvest ‘In or Adjacent to the JBMP’#Year Weight (tonnes) Value ($’000) Number of FishingBusinesses1997‐98 1,969 5,311 1661998‐99 1,620 4,517 1681999‐00 1,816 5,257 1462000‐01 1,900 5,538 1432001‐02 2,140 6,511 1292002‐03 1,740 4,997 1102003‐04 1,735 4,449 962004‐05 1,989 4,858 922005‐06 1,745 5,044 912006‐07 1,640 5,241 852007‐08 1,829 5,817 752008‐09 1,843 6,708 66Source: I&I Fisheries Resource Management Branch, September 2010# Includes estuary general, fish trawl, ocean hauling, ocean prawn trawl and ocean trap and line.Prior to the establishment of the MP zoning plan in 2002 the NSW Government completeda buy out of 17 fishing businesses and reduced estuary general commercial fishing activityin the enclosed waters of Jervis Bay (see Figure 2.1). Commercial fishing in the ocean zoneoutside Jervis Bay has been relatively stable since at least 1997‐98 (MPA 2009).1Note the north of JBMP includes a small fraction of Ocean Zone 7. Given its small size and capacity to distort,Ocean Zone 7 data has not been included in Table 2.1.Economic Impacts of Draft JBMP Zoning PlanPage 8FINAL