The Tasmanian Government has announced immediate changes to the size and bag limit for flathead with further proposed radical changes from November 1.
This is despite the Government saying just three months ago there would be no changes.
Immediate interim measures have been introduced which came into effect on April 20.
These include: minimum size and limit for flathead being increased from 32 to 35 centimeters, and a new statewide daily bag limit of 10 flathead (was 20).
From 1 November, (subject to consultation) it is proposed to limit the daily bag limit to just two fish in the south, and five fish for the remainder of the state, with a maximum size of 38 centimeters in the south, and 40 centimeters for the remainder of the state (no size limit on Bass Strait Islands).
People can have their say at the Fishing Tasmania website.
The new measures come after an assessment late last year conducted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies on a number of scalefish species to being marked as either depleted or depleting.
Flathead is the most popular recreational fish in Tasmania and has been labelled as ‘depleted’.