Start for lobster fishers Better season
South Australia's rock lobster fishermen are pulling more crays earlier in the season than they did last season.
Results vary between the Southern and Northern Zones.
The Southern Zone's season was shortened in the face of declining stocks but even with a month's less fishing, numbers are up compared to the same time last year.
More than than 780,000 tonnes of crayfish have been caught since November, leaving about 460,000 tonnes left in the quota.
In the Northern Zone, the lobster haul is down from last year but fishermen say they have fished significantly fewer days this season.
Market factors like China's suspension of Australian rock lobster imports meant exporters in both regions struggled to move stock in December.
The chief executive of the Rock Lobster Advisory Council, Justin Phillips, says the industry's actually performing better this season, with fishermen pulling more crays in the face of the China crisis.
He says the council is finalising a new management plan for the fishery that should allow better control of the quota in the future.
"What we're looking at, I guess, is a conservative approach in relation to the management of the fishery, so I guess we want to avoid the extreme highs and the extreme lows," he said.
"We want to provide operators within the fishery with a high level of business certainty as well so they know where they're heading from one season to the next."
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