Fishing Victoria Forum

Can anyone please clarify the Intertidal zone for me?

From the DPI website:

"For the purpose of fisheries regulations, the intertidal zone of marine and estuarine waters is defined as the strip of land from the high tide mark to where the water is at least 2 metres deep at any given time."

Does this mean in simple terms any water less than 2 meters deep from the shore line?

Pretty much. That's the way I read it.

Yep, in water less than 2 metres deep one is not allowed to take certain shellfish.

So where the 2 metre mark is, will vary depending on the tide. For example, if the end of, lets say Rosebud pier is 1.8 at low tide and 2.2 at high tide, one will be able to collect certain molluscs once the water level reaches 2 metres. But then you will not be allowed to collect those same molluscs at low tide.

Thats the way I read it.

Thanks guys!

so if you were 2 meters tall, you can't collect shellfish if you can touch the bottom with your feet?

ie: you can only dive in water that is at least 2 meters deep no matter what the tide is doing?

Just want to be sure.

Not quite that simple fellas.

Ok, the ITZ we know extends down 2 meters below the water surface at any given time BUT, it also extends upward to the top of the high tide mark.

Think of a ruler marked in metres from 0 - 10m.
At high tide the water surface is at 9m
At low tide the water surface is at 5m
This gives us a tidal rise/fall of 4m overall.

The intertidal zone is from the high tide mark (9m) to 2m below the water surface at any given time.

So at high tide the ITZ is from 9m down to 7m.

However, at low tide the ITZ is from the 9m high tide mark down to 3m (2m below the 5m low tide surface line).

The idea is that they (authorities) don't want you taking from that top 2 meters of water but also from the shore above THE WATER TO THE HIGH TIDE MARK. This stops people stripping the exposed shore line above the water surface at low tide.

Hope this clarifies it a bit.

Basically it is designed to stop you taking shellfish unless snorkelling. i.e nothing from were you can stand including the land that dries during low tide. So if you go down and pick mussels of the rocks at low tide you are in the ****.