Vessel tracking helps to ensure the sustainability of Queensland's fisheries. Monitoring commercial fishing activity allows more informed and responsive management of our fisheries resources upon which many commercial operators and regional communities depend. Data from vessel tracking is used to:
- monitor quota in near real time (e.g. deducting fishing days from individual's quota)
- monitor compliance with area and seasonal closures (including marine park zones)
- provide intelligence and evidence for investigations
- help validate logbook data on where and when fishing occurred
- provide fishing effort data that is used in stock assessments to estimate the biomass of a fish stock
- help inform fishery management changes that may be needed.
Primary commercial fishing licences that are endorsed to operate in the following fisheries must have an approved and registered vessel tracking unit on their primary boats and powered tender boats: A1, A2, B1, C1, C2, C3, D, J1, K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6, K7, K8, L1, L2, L3, L4, L8, M1, M2, N1, N2, N3, N4, N10, N11, N12, N13, R, T1, T2, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8 and T9.
Commercial fishing operations that are required to have vessel tracking on their boats must use units that are on the Fisheries Queensland approved unit list and comply with the installation and maintenance standard when configuring, installing and maintaining vessel tracking units. You must confirm that your vessel tracking unit is polling before you go fishing.
You are required to nominate and maintain a boat communication notice by which an officer approved by the Chief Executive can communicate with the commercial fisher in control of the boat immediately. The boat communication notice can be given through your FishNet Secure account for each primary commercial fishing licence you hold (under My Boat Contact).
