Assessing economic and social dimensions of Tasmania's rock lobster fishery

IMAS is conducting a survey of Tasmania's commercial rock lobster fishery to collect data that provides a wide range of economic and social values, which can be used to understand the commercial fishery.

For example, collecting information on what it costs to go fishing enables researchers to determine the direct and flow-on economic contributions of the commercial sector to different parts of Tasmania and the national economy.

Currently, the value of the fishery is usually reported as the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Rural Economics (ABARES) figure that measures the gross value of Australian fisheries and aquaculture production (GVP) or 'beach price'. 

However, this valuation does not reflect the true social and economic contribution of the resource or fishery activities, or how the benefits generated are distributed to people within the fishery and to the Tasmanian community.

The last economic survey of the commercial fishery was conducted in 2007, and there have been many changes in the industry since then. This survey will fill current gaps in assessing the social and economic dimensions of Tasmanian fisheries.

The survey will be open until February/March 2020, and the report will be available in mid- to late-2020.