Abolishing the Vicinity Rule: A Small Reform That Could Rebuild Fishing Capacity
- Joshua Van Der Neut
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
The garfish have been landed. The estimated weight has been reported. The fish are chilled, transport is ready and the boat could return to sea.
But the skipper cannot leave.
Under the current Eastern Sea Garfish rules, the endorsement holder must remain in the immediate vicinity of the catch until an accurate final weight has been reported. This applies even after the Department knows who caught the fish, where they were landed and approximately how much was taken.
It sounds like a small requirement.
In a fishery shaped by weather, tides and moving schools of fish, it can cost the remainder of a workable fishing window.
On 20 July 2026, the Wild Caught Fishers Coalition submitted a formal report to CommFish NSW requesting its review and support for abolishing the vicinity rule. The report was also sent to DPIRD and the Minister, placing the proposed reform directly before the bodies capable of progressing it.
The proposal is modest, practical and important.
It shows how rebuilding Australia’s fishing capacity can begin by removing one unnecessary restraint at a time.
What WCFC Is Proposing
WCFC is not asking for catch reporting or quota accountability to be weakened.
The initial estimated landing report would remain. The accurate final weight would remain. Quota deductions would remain. Existing penalties for false reporting, missing reports and exceeding quota would remain.
The only element proposed for removal is the requirement for the skipper to remain physically beside the catch until the final weight is submitted.
Once the estimated report has been accepted, the catch could remain with crew, a driver, co-operative, processor or buyer. The skipper could return to the water while the fish continue through their normal chilled transport, grading, weighing and packing process.
The accurate final weight could then be checked against Sydney Fish Market, co-operative, processor and buyer records.
The accountability remains.
The unnecessary delay does not.
Why Abolishing the Vicinity Rule Matters
Fishing capacity is often measured by the number of boats, licences or quota shares remaining in an industry.
But productive capacity is broader than that.
It includes skilled fishers, working vessels, access to the water, available quota, landing facilities, buyers, processing pathways and the time needed to bring seafood from the ocean to the public.
A boat held at the beach is not productive capacity.
A fisher required to remain beside already-reported catch is not fishing.
This matters because garfish operations depend on short and uncertain opportunities. A school may move. The weather may change. The tide may turn. A fishing window available now may be gone several hours later.
Removing the vicinity requirement would not increase the total allowable catch or permit a fisher to take more than their quota.
It would simply make existing fishing rights more practical to use.
That is what a capacity-restoring reform looks like. It preserves the legitimate purpose of regulation while removing a restriction that limits responsible production.
An Auditable Weight, Not an Idle Skipper
The central compliance question is simple.
Does the Department need the skipper standing beside the catch, or does it need an accurate final weight that can be independently verified?
Physical attendance does not prove that the reported weight is correct. It proves only that the skipper remained near the fish until the report was made.
Independent commercial records test the information that actually matters.
The WCFC report recommends random or targeted audits comparing final catch reports with market and buyer records, particularly where there are reasonable grounds to suspect inaccurate reporting, quota evasion or unlawful sales.
This would allow compliance effort to focus on measurable discrepancies rather than requiring every skipper to remain beside every landing.
The Department needs an auditable weight, not an idle skipper.
That is not weaker regulation.
It is regulation designed around a verifiable outcome.
A Fishery Suited to Smarter Accountability
Eastern Sea Garfish is a small and concentrated fishery.
The 2024 Total Allowable Fishing Committee material identified 18 businesses meeting the minimum shareholding required to operate. Only seven reported quota usage in 2023/24, while four businesses accounted for 91 per cent of reported quota usage.
The report also records that 21.2 tonnes of Eastern Sea Garfish passed through Sydney Fish Market in 2022/23.
These figures suggest that the major catch and market pathways can be understood and audited without requiring continuous physical attendance by every skipper.
WCFC has not identified published garfish-specific evidence showing that fishers handing catch to drivers, buyers or processors created a material quota-evasion problem. Nor has it located a published assessment demonstrating that the operational burden of the vicinity rule is proportionate to its compliance benefit.
That does not mean illegal activity is impossible.
It means restrictions should be matched to demonstrated risks, and less burdensome options should be considered where they can deliver the same accountability.
Better Handling, Better Seafood
The proposed change could also improve the way the catch is handled.
Garfish is a delicate product that must be chilled and carefully prepared for market. Under the current system, fish may be removed from an ice slurry for an early accurate weight, returned to the slurry, and then handled again during final grading and packing.
That double handling adds time and work without necessarily improving the reliability of the final report.
A better process would allow the fish to remain chilled until they reach the normal grading, weighing and packing stage. The final weight could then be recorded once and supported by the ordinary commercial documentation.
Less handling. Less delay. The same reporting obligation.
Good regulation should help locally caught seafood move safely and efficiently from the water to the consumer.
Rebuilding Capacity One Rule at a Time
The future of locally caught seafood will require larger reforms.
Australia needs productive fishing access, viable businesses, local processing, skilled operators and realistic pathways for the next generation.
But renewal will not come through one grand announcement.
It will also be built through smaller decisions that return time, flexibility and operating opportunity to the people supplying Australian seafood.
CommFish and DPIRD now have the opportunity to assess whether continuous physical attendance is genuinely necessary, or whether accurate final reporting and reconciliation against existing market records can achieve the same purpose with less burden.
The catch can remain reported.
The final weight can remain accurate.
The records can remain auditable.
And the fisher can return to the water.
The future is locally caught seafood.
Sometimes rebuilding that future begins with removing one unnecessary rule.
