Report tagged rock lobsters to win

While COVID-19 has delayed our Tasmanian rock lobster tag lottery this year, our first lottery will be drawn in late-July – and we’re inviting you to be in the draw to win some great prizes.

IMAS runs the bi-monthly tag lottery as an incentive for commercial and recreational fishers, processors and the broader community to report the tagged rock lobsters they recover and contribute to research into the size of stocks and sustainable harvests.

At IMAS, we tag around 15,000 rock lobsters each year and tag-recapture data is an extremely important part of our research effort.

Our research focuses on improving the production and management of Tasmania’s rock lobster and giant crab fisheries, and covers issues such as improved understanding of biology, the ecological effects of fishing, estimating the size of stocks, evaluating different management strategies and improving economic yields.

Have you caught a tagged fish?
Go to our IMAS tagged fish page for everything you need to know about reporting your catch and entering our rock lobster tag lottery.

If you’re not sure how to measure or tag your lobster, DPIPWE has simple instructions here.

For every tag you report, you’ll receive an entry into the tag lottery and go into the annual grand prize of $500 from Sunderland Marine Insurance. We’ll also send you information about when, where and what size the rock lobster was when it was originally tagged.

Thanks to our generous 2020 sponsors: Sunderland Marine Insurance, Tamar Marine, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, Woodbridge Smokehouse, Dalrymple Tasmania and Go Dive Tasmania. Prizes our sponsors donate contribute to increasing rates of lobster tag returns from around the state.