Portland is a medium sized town (population 11,000) in western Victoria some 362km west of Melbourne. Portland is Victoria's birthplace with the Henty family being the first permanent settlers in the area, making Portland their home in 1834.

Portland has a deep water port important for shipping the regions produce of aluminium, wool, timber, live stock, grain and wood chips.

Commercial fishing is Portland's longest established industry. Portland started as a sealing and whaling port. The Dusting family introduced Cornish cray pots to the area for catching rock lobster. The style of pot changed during the 1920s to resemble the current design. The fishing industry expanded after the railway came through in the 1870s. Consignments of fish were sent to inland Victorian towns like Ballarat and Henty. The boats used up until the 1890s were small (20 feet) and shallow so that they could be pulled up onto the beach in bad weather. Fishers used to target barracouta, gummy sharks, rock lobster, and Australian salmon. Portland even had a cannery, operated by the South Australian Fishermen's Cooperative (SAFCOL) during the 1960s.

Today Portland supports Victoria's second largest fishing port. Current fishing activities from Portland include rock lobster , king crabs, abalone , deep-sea trawling , drop-line fishing, mesh netting , hand-line fishing and squid jigging .

Southern rock lobster has been the major fishery for Portland for decades and supports a fleet of around 30 vessels. These boats are licensed to fish in the Victorian western zone fishery (Apollo Bay to the Victorian-SA border). This fishery is worth around AU$10 million a year.

The king crab ( Pseudocarcinus gigas ) fishery is a newly developed fishery that expanded rapidly during the 1990s. Rock lobster fishermen initially caught king crabs as a by-catch but now it is a targeted species using pots. This crab is one of the largest in the world and is now a valuable export earner to Asia.

Six abalone divers operate from Portland. Licence holders are limited to taking their quota allocation.

The deep-sea trawl boats based in Portland supply 40 per cent of the fish sold through the Melbourne Wholesale Fish Market. Fourteen vessels operate from Portland, fishing within the South East Fishery fishing to Kangaroo Island (SA) in the west and the east coast of Tasmania. The Portland trawl fleet lands 6000 tonnes of fish on the Australian market each year. An estimated AU$20 million of trawl fish is landed at Portland's wharves annually.

Drop-line fishing targets blue eye trevalla ( Hyperoglyphe antarctica ) and other species on the edge of the continental shelf. This fishing method was a beneficial fishery for rock lobster fishermen in the 1970s until late 1980s. Only one or two boats are left in this fishery due partly to the pressure of deep sea trawling and the development of the crab and squid fisheries.

Mesh netting operations in both inshore and offshore areas currently support only two or three operators part-time.

Hand line fishing is used primarily for wrasse . Fishing for this species has expanded in recent years. This fishery is a low cost fishery and supports about six families. Fish are sold live to domestic and export markets.