Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) is a member of the family Sciaenidae, which are commonly known as drums and croakers, and a nearshore coastal (< 100 m depth) species that also occurs in estuaries and nearshore Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean waters surrounding Australia, Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Korea and Japan. In Australia, mulloway are distributed along the eastern, southern and western seaboards from the Burnett River in Queensland to North West Cape in WA. Mulloway also occur in the north-western Pacific and through the Indian Ocean as far west as Africa (Ferguson 2011, 2012).

Mulloway in South Australia are managed as a self‐recruiting population, with recruitment considered to be dependent upon local spawning within South Australian waters (Sloan 2005).