Yellow-eye mullet, Aldrichetta forsteri is widely distributed and locally abundant in temperate coastal waters of southern and western Australia, around Tasmania and throughout New Zealand. It is mostly a marine to estuarine species, but it does penetrate upstream in low elevation coastal or brackish lakes. It is the most common mullet species found in southern Australian waters and the global population is thought to be stable. 

Aldrichetta forsteri does supports minor commercial fisheries, it is a popular recreational fishery species and there is very little published information on the commercial fishery for this species. It is predominantly fished using set-nets and gillnets (Bray and Gomon 2011).

The biological stock structure of Yelloweye Mullet throughout its distribution is not well understood. It has been suggested that populations in Australia form two discrete biological stocks—western and eastern—based on morphological differences. However, further studies are required to confidently define biological stock delineation for this species. In the absence of definitive information on biological stock structure, status is reported on a jurisdictional basis for Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. For South Australia, status is reported for two functionally independent management units that reflect spatial patterns in commercial fishing (Earl and Ferguson 2013).

The Lakes and Coorong Fishery (South Australia) management unit has traditionally been the most important of the South Australian fisheries for Yelloweye Mullet, accounting for approximately 80 per cent of the state’s total catch of this species since 2000 (Ferguson 2012).

The LCF is a multi-species, multi-gear fishery that operates in, and adjacent to, the estuary of the Murray River, which comprises the Coorong lagoons, Lower Lakes of the Murray River (Lakes Alexandrina and Albert) and Coorong Coastal Waters (Sloan 2005). Fishers in the LCF use mainly gill nets to target Yelloweye Mullet, Argyrosomus japonicus, Macquaria ambigua, Acanthopagrus butcheri, and Rhombosolea tapirina. These fishers also have access to Donax deltoides on the ocean beach adjacent to the Coorong lagoons. Yelloweye Mullet is one of the main target species in the LCF (Ferguson 2012).

This fishery was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council system in June 2008. Click here to link to the MSC fishery page and to learn more about the MSC fishery certification unit.