FISHERMEN are catching increasing numbers of giant crabs with missing claws, in a fishery with fewer crabs.
Wynyard-based fisher Peter Smith regularly places his crab pots on a thin wedge of continental shelf, off the West Coast.
Trawlers from interstate have been ploughing through the Tasmanian giant crab fishery (TGCF) - a relatively small fishery worth $1.36 million in 2013-14 - and dragging crab fishing gear with them.
There are many issues affecting the fishery, including trawlers, Mr Smith said.
He is worried if nothing is done the TGCF will disappear.
"If they keep going the way they're going, we'll have no crab fishery," Mr Smith said.
Numbers of crabs have declined for years, data from the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment shows.
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Mr Smith is concerned if numbers continue to decline, the fishery will disappear.
Trawlers can affect individual crab fishers.
When a trawler's net catches a crab pot, 20 kilometres of gear can be lost at once, Mr Smith said.
"They just drag it straight down over the shelf," Mr Smith said.
He knows where the trawler "highway" is and avoids the trawlers, but other crab fishers are not so lucky.
"A lot of guys have lost a lot of gear," Mr Smith said.
Giant crabs are not a huge part of Mr Smith's business, but still important.
"It takes a bit more pressure off the cray fishing," Mr Smith said.
The Tasmanian giant crab fishery's largest area is off the West Coast, with some areas on the East Coast.
Mr Smith goes shark and cray fishing but said others rely on the giant crabs.
Crabs missing claws is a problem.
Giant crab fishermen, in years past, would put one- armed crabs back in the sea to allow claw regeneration.
Now crab fishermen are getting so many giant crabs with missing limbs, they are taking those to market.
THE impacts of trawlers on the Tasmanian Giant Crab Fishery is concerning, the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment has said.
Its recent report to the federal Department of the Environment says building the fishery’s biomass from its low point of 19 per cent was a priority.
Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck yesterday encouraged the crab and trawl fishers to talk to each other.
"The last thing you need is government getting involved," Senator Colbeck said.
South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association chief executive Simon Boag was not aware trawlers in the TGCF — a state fishery that sits in Commonwealth trawling waters — was an issue.
"No one from DPIPWE contacted us," Mr Boag said.
Mr Boag said the Tasmanian Rock Lobster Fishers Association had never approached him. However, the TRLFA has said trawlers in the crab fishery was an issue.
TRLFA chief executive John Sansom said the state and federal governments would need to sort the issue.
State minister for Primary Industries and Water, Jeremy Rockliff, was contacted for comment but was not available yesterday.