Between 1969 and 1975 the Fisheries Division of the Department of Agriculture underwent a transformation. Under the leadership of Roy Scott the Division had recovered from its problems of the late 1950s and rebuilt its credibility and liaison with the industry. Although a research program had begun, in 1968 the Division was still predominantly devoted to regulation. During the next six years the organisation assumed full responsibility for fisheries management and development. In this context the traditional regulatory function of fisheries administration involves simple controls largely devoted to preventing the capture of immature fish based on qualitative assessments. Fisheries management requires quantitative assessment of the fishery as a dynamic system in order to achieve an objective such as sustained maximisation of yield or net economic worth.

By 1969 the Government had accepted full responsibility for the new fishery and was anxious to see it prosper. Basic measures to control the catch were in place, an effective minimum size regime was operating that ensured both conservation of the resource and the yield per recruit was optimised, in addition diving equipment had to be regularly examined by the Chief Inspector of Machinery. A draft code of practice to ensure the quality of the product had been produced and circulated to the industry. Part time diving had been stopped by regulations allowing the Minister to cancel, or not re-issue a licence, if the person ‘ceased to fish for abalone’. Failure to lodge returns was also grounds for cancellation and the abalone and rock lobster fisheries were separated by prohibiting the carriage of cray pots or rings on a boat engaged in abalone fishing.

As might be expected not everyone was content under the new regime. The processors body wrote to the Minister in March 1969 objecting to licence limitation but would accept a small increase in the legal minimum length. Divers on King Island were having trouble with the landing alive rule as there was no registered factory. The Division solved the problem getting registration for a new shed to be built on the jetty. The King Island divers also requested a special licence but the Division firmly rejected any suggestion of zoning. Mike O’Connor caused a bit of a fuss by seeking to bring in two US divers to help his steak business. A little later Bern Cuthbertson asked the Minister to limit the number of boats in the fishery and to introduce a scale of divers that could be carried, in the same way that pots were allocated on lobster boats.

The unexpected election of a Liberal Government early in the year also created some turbulence. All those unhappy with the policies of the former Government wrote, phoned, or called on the new Minister; amongst these included a number from the abalone fishery. In June the new Minister, Doug Clark, made the first of his annual visits to all fishing ports. In addition to answering a lot of important questions it also provided a very convenient forum to reopen old sores. The Department held its breath whilst Doug Clark called for all the papers relating to limited entry. In August we could breathe again when he announced that there would be no more licences. Nevertheless the list of those living in hope continued to grow.

When the 120 licences issued in 1969 expired at the end of that year, only 96 of the divers applied to renew their entitlement to fish. During the year the Division had received enquiries from 53 people who were not licensed in 1969 seeking a licence. Many were from interstate and overseas. It was faced with a dilemma in deciding how the lucky 24 should be chosen. The Minister sought guidance from his colleagues and in April 1970 Cabinet decided that the number of licences ‘shall continue to restricted to 120 in number and shall be issued to Tasmanian Residents with commercial fishing experience’.

So the entry criteria for the fishery were established henceforth to be licensed you had to be a Tasmanian with previous experience in commercial fishing. The Division issued 24 licenses to the applicants who met these criteria in chronological order of their application. It was immediately faced with the problem of defining a Tasmanian and resisting claims that to discriminate against persons from another State was unconstitutional. The Solicitor-General ruled that a Tasmanian was a person domiciled in the State and this was not contrary to the Constitution. Persons who lived in Tasmania and could demonstrate that they owned or had a long term lease on a residence or had no such residence elsewhere cleared the bar. To be on the electoral roll or to have children in a Tasmanian school etc. was also considered acceptable evidence. The criteria allowed persons from overseas and interstate to move to Tasmania and domicile themselves here, and then qualify. This practice became crucial later when entitlements became transferable.

When writing the report on the fishery in 1970 I said ‘licence limitation has no effect on the catch ….the slump in 1969 and the record in 1970 seem directly related to price. It could only be effective if all licences were used to capacity.’ However I was happy that the 1000 ton target was looking very conservative. The limitation had reduced the number licensed to dive but those remaining had not greatly increased their effort, for weather controlled that, its function was now to protect divers income.

After the virgin stock was culled the catch rate began to rise as the expertise of divers rose. In 1970 an average diver could expert to catch 5700 lb. a month and that was worth $910.

The summer of 1970-71 was notable for an exceptional summer. Calm weather on the west coast resulted in large catches. Gordon Abel of Strahan reported that 200 tonnes were landed there in a five-day period in January. My statistics showed that 630 tonnes were caught in January and 463 tonnes in February. On Takarri Bern Cuthbertson’s five divers fished on 16 days in January and caught almost 80 tonnes. In Late February we began to get strange reports of dead and dying abalone on some inshore reefs. Pat and David Dennison reported this phenomenon from Church Rocks, near the Arthur River and thought it was due to pollution from Burnie! Ken Petith reported deaths at Temma and Conical Rocks and so did Richard Smith and Curly Robbins. The Processors were also reporting unusual losses in transport. I sent Des Wolfe to investigate and he soon confirmed the reports that abalone were dying along a portion of west coast from Granville Harbour to just north of the Arthur River. He estimated that between 1 and 10% of the stock was affected. Affected abalone were collected and sent to the Mt Pleasant laboratory for testing. A report from another diver that deaths were also occurring in Norfolk Bay could not be substantiated. Subsequently we found from CSIRO that a body of warm water from the East Australian Current had swept through Bass Strait and down the west coast in February, March and April. Surface water of 18 degrees C was still at Cape Sorell in April. This warm water in conjunction with very calm seas probably resulted in oxygen levels falling to lethal concentrations in the affected area.