What is a "Fishing Year"?

Fishing Years

Our Registers are organised into fishing years and as such some online reports require you to enter a fishing year.

Fishing years are defined in the Fishing Act 1996 and relate to the allocation of Total Allowable Commercial Catch and Annual Catch Entitlement (see Glossary for a definition of these terms).

Most fish stocks follow a 1 October to 30 September fishing year, except for:

• 1 April to 31 March – Green Lipped Mussels for Management Area 9, Rock Lobster, Southern Scallops, Northland Scallops and Southern Blue Whiting

• 1 February to 31 January - Freshwater eels

We have added the fishing year for each species listed in the species code table. Click here to view.