Inland Fisheries puts Tasmanian whitebait poachers on notice

" ... now the season has closed, any further whitebait fishing is illegal and significant penalties apply," the Inland Fisheries Service said.

The IFS said the whitebait regulations were in place for a reason.

"The fishery is fragile because of over fishing between the 1940s and 1960s," it said.

"Illegal fishing for whitebait puts this fishery at risk for anybody who enjoys this activity."

The season closed on November 11.

The IFS said its officers saw some good catches.

"Compliance was good, with over 160 checks conducted by IFS, Parks & Wildlife and police during the season," it said.

In the IFS' recently released 2020-21 annual report, Primary Industries and Water Minister Guy Barnett said the IFS had successfully delivered fisheries performance monitoring, fish transfers and stocking, compliance and access to fisheries.

"Tasmanians holidaying at home resulted in the highest local angling participation in over five years," he said.

"Not surprisingly, the number of mainland and overseas anglers was again down due to travel restrictions."

That was shown by the number of Tasmanian angling licences issued to people from overseas.

There were just 12 of those in 2020-21, compared with 458 in the previous financial year and 310 in the year before that.

Most of the 12 were from Europe, with three from the US.

There were 21,430 licences issued to Tasmanians and 3392 to other Australians.