Chinese diners love abalone because it symbolises good fortune, but it comes with a hefty price tag.

Key points: 'Beach prices' fetch up to $80 for each blacklip abalone that goes live to China, while value-added take can draw $50 a kilogram

'Beach prices' fetch up to $80 for each blacklip abalone that goes live to China, while value-added take can draw $50 a kilogram Tasmania's 100 active abalone divers are able to fish 3,500 quota units of abalone with each unit in 2019 being 362kg

Tasmania's 100 active abalone divers are able to fish 3,500 quota units of abalone with each unit in 2019 being 362kg While there has been a halving of the quota in Tasmania, there has been an increase in price of 50 per cent

Restaurant-goers in China are shelling out the equivalent of $100 for an entree, or up to $200 for a main course of blacklip abalone.

In Australia, it costs diners at least $70 a main course, according the Abalone Council of Australia's Dean Lisson.

For abalone divers, particularly those in Tasmania catching the blacklip shellfish, the past 18 months has seen record beach prices.

"In Tasmania we have large, very healthy and robust blacklip that are good for live export," Mr Lisson said.

Tasmanian wild-caught blacklip abalone are robust, which is useful for export markets. ( ABC Rural: Sally Dakis )

"They're strong, they're robust, they're happy to sit in a controlled container for up to 30 odd hours."

Divers are paid a 'beach price' of up to $80 for each blacklip abalone that goes live to China.

While there are four different species of abalone in Australia — greenlip, brownlip, Roe's and blacklip — a lot of the shellfish are not suitable for live export.

Many become part of a value-added chain, being frozen, dried and canned.

Even so, across the value-added range, abalone is fetching divers $50 a kilo, according to Mr Lisson.

Why is abalone it so expensive?

It is simply a case of supply and demand, as divers are not allowed to catch the amount they used to. But demand remains very high.

Most states have had limits put on their abalone quota in a bid to deal with dwindling stocks.

In Tasmania, for example, its 100 active abalone divers are able to fish 3,500 quota units of abalone.

Regarded as a value-added product, canned abalone is still very expensive for buyers. ( ABC Rural: Fiona Breen )

In 2019, each quota allowed the diver to catch 362kg of abalone.

The quotas are reset each year after the health of the fishery is re-assessed.

Tasmanian Abalone Council president Joe McKibben said with beach prices so high, the quota is hot property.

Quotas only started in Tasmania in 1985, and before that the catch was limitless.

It led, scientists say, to historic overfishing, and climate change continues to decimate parts of the fishery.

In the past decade across Australia there has also been large abalone die-outs related to heat waves, and across the south-east coast there's been a loss of habitat to long-spined sea urchins.

The long-spined sea urchin is common in Tasmanian waters, decimating millions of dollars worth of abalone stock. ( Supplied: Mark Jensen )

Mr McKibben said the financial impact of the urchin on Tasmanian abalone fishing alone is in the tens of millions of dollars.

"We've lost quite a lot of fishable ground, and abalone divers have had their quotas halved on Tasmania's east coast," he said.

Processing consultant Mark Webster said he believed the industry has responded too slowly to threats.

Mark Webster says while blacklip harvesting is lucrative, the processing costs are immense. ( ABC Rural: Sally Dakis )

"Our available catch has reduced significantly, leaving holes in the market for other countries to fill," he said.

Nonetheless, divers have been able to cash-in on the popularity of blacklip because although there has been a halving of the quota, there has been an increase in price of 50 per cent, according to Mr Webster.

"[But] from a processing level it's still half the volume contributing to your overheads, which is not good," he added.

"In every state, divers are taking steps to deal with threats to the fishery," Dean Lisson said.

Those initiatives include reducing the yearly catch, increasing minimum sizes, and paying divers to take long-spined sea urchins.

The industry is also looking at boosting wild stocks with farmed juvenile abalone, although that is still some time away.

"There are risks and issues around that. We'll probably work through those in the next year or two," Mr Lisson said.