Australia's largest spanner crab company is urging the Queensland Government not to bow to pressure to increase the fishing quota for the species until there is scientific evidence the population has recovered from the brink of collapse.

Key points: Australia's spanner crab industry was threatened by overfishing

Australia's spanner crab industry was threatened by overfishing Strict new quotas were adopted in 2018

Strict new quotas were adopted in 2018 New fishing strategy to be finalised by July

Spanner crabs have been fished to near extinction in many countries around the world, but significant quota cuts were made to keep Australia's industry sustainable.

The vibrant red spanner crabs are commercially caught in waters stretching from the town of Seventeen Seventy in Queensland, down to the New South Wales border.

Spanner crabs are a highly prized species. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Les and Lynn Apps entered the industry 25 years ago.

From a two-person operation, pushing their boat off the beaches of Fraser Island to get their catch, they have built up their business to employ 40 people.

"Queensland should be proud. We've got the best-managed and the largest spanner crab fishery in the world," Mr Apps said.

"We should be proud to have it at our back door and we should look after it."

As the biggest fishing quota holder, the Apps' company, which trades under the names Fraser Isle Spanner Crabs and Aussie Red crab, has millions of dollars riding on the industry's sustainability.

Fraser Isle spanner crabs employs 40 people. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Species rebuilding

And while supportive of Queensland Fisheries management now, Mr Apps claimed that spanner crab numbers were still suffering, from mistakes made in the past.

"We went through a period [from] 2006/7 to about 2014 where I believe we had a period of political interference and, in my personal opinion, mismanagement, and I think we're paying the price of it now," he said.

"We just don't want to see that situation again."

Mr Apps raised his concerns as Fisheries Queensland sought comment on its draft harvest strategy for 2020-2025.

The strategy needs to be implemented by the middle of the year and Mr Apps and his business partner, Jason Simpson, are worried the process could be influenced by pressure to increase fishing quotas before the crab population has time to rebuild.

Fraser Isle Spanner Crab's Jason Simpson says it is crucial that the spanner crab industry is sustainably managed. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"I think some of the negative press that we may have had is coming from individual fishermen," Mr Simpson said.

"It is unfortunately an emotional one [story] where they haven't managed to stretch their quota out to get to the beginning of the quota year and consequently they've got a boat tied up, they've got skippers they can't employ and it's absolutely tragic," Mr Simpson said.

"We've got two boats that have been tied up [for more than a year] as well, and we're full of sympathy, but at the end of the day it all comes down to sustainability of the product."

Queensland's commercial catch peaked at over 3,000 tonnes in 1994 but that was not sustainable for the very slow-growing spanner crab which takes five times longer than a mud crab to be old enough to breed.

Fraser Isle Spanner crab developed a process to extract and vacuum pack the spanner crab meat. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"Technically there's no no way of them accurately ageing the lifespan of the spanner crab," Mr Simpson said.

"What we do know from the thinking from Queensland fisheries is that the most mature crab, heading up towards a kilogram, is somewhere between 10 and 15 years of age and sexual maturity isn't reached until the age of five years."

Fisheries Queensland Executive director, Claire Andersen, said her department responded to concerns in 2018, by cutting the industries fishing quota by 48 per cent.

"The stocks were at the lowest point we've seen them in the history of the spanner crab fishery," Ms Andersen said.

"So fisheries Queensland stepped in, worked with industry and identified some changes that needed to be made to help protect the stock and rebuild it over time."

Live spanner crabs are flown to southern markets and destinations overseas. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Ms Andersen said because fishers were not catching anywhere near the number of spanner crabs they were allowed to, in real terms the total allowable catch only decreased by 10 per cent, to 847 tonnes.

"If we hadn't have stepped in at that point, I think we would be at a stage right now where we would have to look at closing the fishery, it was quite serious," she said.

In the years that Jason Simpson has been attending the world's largest seafood trade show in northern China, he has witnessed spanner crabs offerings from other countries dwindle from some undersized specimens, to none.

"We set up a stand at the show in November, we had crabs there, 800 grams to a kilo and the international seafood fraternity that visited our stand had never seen anything like it, they were absolutely in wonderment."

Sustainability the key

Les Apps said Australia needs to protect its reputation as the most sustainable spanner crab fishery in the world.

"All other areas, where there's been spanner crab, they have basically been fished out," he said.

"Areas in Thailand, the bottom end of Japan, Hawaii went through a period there where their fishery collapsed, they're trying to bring it back.

"We want to make sure that governments are acting responsibly and that managers are making sure that fisheries are sustainable based on good sound statistics and we don't want personal opinions or situations interfering again."

Fraser Isle Spanner Crabs and Aussie Red Crab buys spanner crab from five independent fishers and owns another 12 boats.

The industry is highly regulated, with satellite trackers on every vessel and their tenders — a smaller boat used for transportation between a large ship and the shore.

Spanner crab vessels return to Mooloolaba harbour after two days at sea in 2016. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"All our fishermen have to report in one hour before they enter port, how many baskets they have on board, they then have to weigh those baskets and then a report has to be done straight away into how many kilos they have offloaded," Mr Apps said.

"We have the fisheries inspectors regularly coming down — I mean you cannot bring in one kilo of crab without reporting the exact weight and our factories are all monitored regularly to make sure that we are all doing the right things."

Ms Andersen said Fisheries Queensland had no plans to change fishing quotas at this stage and decision making would be based on science and surveys of the fishery.

"Last year's survey showed that catch rates were starting to stabilise, so it's not getting any worse, but it's also not recovering particularly quickly as well so we need to continue to monitor that and ensure that the catch levels are set at the appropriate and sustainable level," she said.