A new study suggests periwinkles may be the next big seafood and divers and diners are being encouraged to get onboard.

The sea snails are found mostly in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, but the island state has by far the biggest annual harvest.

Even so, the first comprehensive study of the Tasmanian fishery has revealed the state's quota has not been reached for seven seasons.

One of the study's authors, Dr John Keane from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said the 55 licence holders were raking in less than half of their potential catch.

"It's quite a large untapped resource, there's potential to double the amount of harvest in Tasmania," he said.

"The quota at the moment is just over 52 tonnes, and we've only been catching about half of that on average each year."

Rob Rodway is one of the divers who braves the cold Tasmanian waters to collect the seafood and admits it can be tough at times.

"There are days when you forget to hang your wetsuit out and there might be frost hang off it or something like that, but they're the days that suck," he said.

Despite those days, he describes diving for periwinkles and urchins as his "dream job".

"It's very much in its infancy so really interesting fishery to be in, it's growing every year, the prices of peris and urchins are incrementally going up."

Dr Keane said his research found that in order to reach the fishery's potential, divers needed to improve consistency of supply and marketing the product.

"Most Tasmanians probably don't know about the periwinkle, they don't realise that we harvest it here in Tasmania," he said.

"So product marketing and increased awareness would go a long way to increasing demand for periwinkles."

Dr Keane believed an appearance on a reality cooking show could help.

Tasmania only harvests about half the 52,000 tonne periwinkle quota . ( ABC News )

"After seafood products appear on a show like Masterchef, we'll see a lot higher demand amongst the marketplace and we'll see this demand will then lead to restaurants putting the product on the market and consumers asking where they get the product," he said.

The research canvassed interstate suppliers and retailers and found there was considerable room for market expansion, particularly in Vietnamese eateries and top end restaurants looking for edgy products.

Hobart chef David Moyle has periwinkles on his menu and serves them simply, steamed and shucked to order.

"They do freak some people out because they're a little long and overwhelming sometimes to eat the whole thing," he said.

"But in saying that, so many people are so willing to give it a go."

Mr Rodway admits periwinkles are a little confronting.

"If you get your head around what they look like and just throw them back, throw them down and they're good, they're tasty little morsels," he said.