Australia's professional fishers harvest a variety of seafood species for the community to enjoy.
CRUSTACEANS
![pexels-mark-stebnicki-2252617-scaled-e1612758676249 pexels-mark-stebnicki-2252617-scaled-e1612758676249](https://www.oceanwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/pexels-mark-stebnicki-2252617-scaled-e1612758676249-1.jpg)
Crustaceans have a hard exoskeleton, which protects the animal from predators and prevents water loss.
Crustaceans include commonly-known marine life such as crabs, lobsters, and prawns.
CARTILAGINOUS FISH
Cartilaginous fish are characterized by a skeleton made of cartilage instead of a bone, jaws, and symmetrically paired fins, gills, and paired nostrils. These fish generally have tough skin covered with modified teeth called 'dermal denticles'. These provide protection and also help to streamline the fish.
There are at least 1100 known species of cartilaginous fish, which include sharks, rays, skates and sawfish and ghost sharks (or chimeras).
FINFISH
![DSC_1255-scaled-e1612757182902 DSC_1255-scaled-e1612757182902](https://www.oceanwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DSC_1255-scaled-e1612757182902-1.jpg)
![DSC_1255-scaled-e1612757182902 DSC_1255-scaled-e1612757182902](https://www.oceanwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DSC_1255-scaled-e1612757182902-1.jpg)
The characteristics of finfish (bony fish) include internal skeletons made of bone, scales, paired fins, gills, jaws and paired nostrils. Some examples include salmon, bream, mullet etc.
There are over 28000 species of bony fish classified through science, accounting for approximately 96% of all fish species.
MOLLUSCS
![DSC_3426-scaled-e1612758437364 DSC_3426-scaled-e1612758437364](https://www.oceanwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DSC_3426-scaled-e1612758437364-1.jpg)
![DSC_3426-scaled-e1612758437364 DSC_3426-scaled-e1612758437364](https://www.oceanwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DSC_3426-scaled-e1612758437364-1.jpg)