July 15, 2026
Photo supplied by Brad Spiden
The Victorian Fisheries Authority’s have released a Mulloway Improvement Program to improve Victoria’s mulloway fishery for public consultation.
Background
Mulloway are a highly regarded sportfish, targeted by recfishers along the Victorian coast – including Gippsland and Glenelg River estuaries as well as the Yarra and Maribyrnong river systems in Port Phillip and Western Port – and the species can reach 150cm and 30kg or more.
For those who know where to find them, mulloway are a fantastic target species for both catch and release and to keep for the dinner table.
Over recent years, passionate mulloway recfishers have voiced opinions that the current bag limit of five mulloway is too high and consider it as being more than a reasonable day’s take. Additionally, increasing the minimum size limit from 60cm to 70cm will give the species around 10 months further protection in estuaries and algin the limit with New South Wales.
The commercial harvest of mulloway in Victoria is currently around 50kg annually. However, in years where mulloway numbers are prolific the commercial harvest is higher.
The proposed Mulloway Improvement Program
The Victorian Fisheries Authority’s proposed Mulloway Improvement Program includes a range of short, medium and long-term actions to improve the quality of the mulloway fishery.
Short Term – Revise recreational fishing regulations for mulloway
- Change the bag limit from 5 mulloway per person per day to 2 mulloway per person per day, that better reflects a ‘fair days take’, shares the resource and aligns with other large bodied marine species such as kingfish, tuna and gummy shark, as well as the South Australian bag limit for Mulloway.
- Increase the minimum size limit from 60cm to 70cm to give mulloway approximately 10 months extra protection from harvest, allow more fish to reach sexual maturity/spawning size, and align with the minimum size limit with New South Wales for consistency.
Medium Term – Invest in our understanding of mulloway
- Restart an angler tagging program for mulloway in Victoria to continue understanding growth, movement and connectivity of the species, complementing tagging programs in South Australia and New South Wales.
- Expand on a project to scientifically track mulloway around Melbourne Rivers (led by Arthur Rylah Institute/Melbourne Water) to better understand mulloway spawning, movement and habitat use with respect to flows.
Long Term – Captively breed and stock mulloway
- Trial the experimental release of mulloway in Victorian estuaries to improve populations, building on Victoria’s long history of successful fish stocking.
According to Victorian Fisheries Authority, the proposed Mulloway Improvement Program will better reflect recfisher views of a reasonable day’s harvest, reduce local depletion of mulloway in rivers and estuaries and improve the quality of the mulloway fishery.
For more information on the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s proposal, visit Mulloway Improvement Program.
HAVE YOUR SAY
You can also contribute directly to the Victorian Fisheries Authority consultation by contacting Taylor Hunt, Victorian Fisheries Authority’s Manager of Recreational Fisheries on [email protected] by 15 August 2026.
In particular, the Victorian Fisheries Authority are seeking recreational fisher feedback on:
- Do you have any further suggested refinements to this proposal?
- Do you support implementing this proposal, as compared with no change to current management arrangements?
Find out more about the proposal via the Victorian Fisheries Authority here.
