Seafood Industry of Victoria

San Remo is a fishing village (population 1200) located 121km south of Melbourne and is the gateway to Phillip Island. San Remo is home of the largest shark fishing fleet in Victoria.

The San Remo Co-operative was formed in 1948. At that time there were 50 to 60 boats operating in the three main fisheries, barracouta, rock lobster and Westernport Bay net fishery. These old boats were very sturdy but had few comforts. The Co-Op supplied, ice, bait and fuel to the boats, and also provided freezer space. Most of the barracouta or 'couta' as it was called was sent to the Melbourne Wholesale Fish market, but some of it was also canned.

During the 1950s a couple of larger boats started operating from San Remo. These boats used long lines to target shark in the Bass Strait Fishery while others targeted rock lobsters from King Island.

In the 1960s the San Remo port had 40 barracouta boats, seven long line boats and several rock lobster boats fishing the Victorian coast, King Island and Flinders Island. During this time boats started to use new technology like the echosounder. Later other new technologies like radar and automatic pilots were also added for use.

In 1972 the barracouta disappeared and have not been back since in commercial quantity. Nobody can really explain it and so the barracouta boats gradually disappeared. Some were sold to boat collectors.

The long line boats targeting shark started to change their fishing gear to use mesh nets in 1974. At these time the San Remo fishing fleet had reduced to 16 boats. These were either fishing for shark or rock lobster, some of the smaller boats were netting in Westernport Bay.

The Co-Op was upgraded in 1975 with a new fish shop and office. Ice provided by the Co-Op was at the time made in Cowes on Phillip Island and was trucked over to service the fishing fleet.

From 1975 to the mid eighties, the operations of the fishing fleet and Co-Op remained unchanged.

In 1986 the Co-Op brought a five tonne a day ice-making machine. So instead of trucking in ice from Cowes, ice could be directly transferred to boats through a hopper and blower system on the wharf. Funding for the new ice machine was fully financed by the local fishermen.

The introduction of restricted fishing licences for the shark fleet occurred in 1987 and resulted in a reduction in the size of the fishing fleet at San Remo. Reductions in the length of the nets able to be used were also introduced.

New technologies like the Global Positioning System (GPS) were introduced in 1991. This changed the way that the fishing industry could operate. Now almost every boat is fitted with GPS, radar, echosounder, auto pilot, radio, mobile phone and computers.

In 1996 the San Remo Co-Op was rebuilt again and this time incorporated a state of the art fish and chip shop and a viewing platform (eat out area) on top of the Co-Op building. People can now eat the fresh fish caught by our own fishing fleet.

Currently the San Remo port has eight shark boats, one long line boat, one off-shore trawlers , seven rock lobster boats, two live fish hooking boats ( wrasse ) and two net boats that fish in Westernport Bay and three fishing charter boats.

Each boat has a skipper on board who is also often the holder of the fishing licence. A deck hand is also employed for each boat.

The San Remo Co-op employs two full time staff and 10 part-time staff.

A regular event at the Co-op is the daily feeding of the local pelicans at 11:30 am, to the great delight of the public.