Distributed from Cape Hawke in New South Wales (Ref. 7300) through the continental slope waters of all southern states to the Exmouth Plateau off Western Australia.

There is no information concerning stock structure of warty oreos in Australian waters.

Commercial fishery: The main fishing area for oreos including warty oreos is within the South East Fishery, on the continental slope of Tasmania. There have also been significant catches taken from the Cascade Plateau by foreign vessels under developmental fishing arrangements (Ref. 27029). Oreos in general are caught exclusively by vessels using demersal otter trawl gear. Oreo aggregations tend to be located over rough ground and require the use of 'target trawling' techniques similar to those used for orange roughy. They have been caught as a bycatch of orange roughy fishing for a number of years and, in the early stages of the orange roughy fishery, were normally discarded. Development of markets for oreos has led fishers to retain the oreo bycatch. Some fishers have targeted aggregations of oreos off southern Tasmania (Ref. 27090), especially during the closed season for orange roughy. Experienced skippers can often distinguish between orange roughy and oreos by their different acoustic target strengths on the echo sounder.

Only small numbers of warty oreos are landed in Tasmania. Landings of oreos in the South East Fishery were about 60 t per annum between 1985-86 and 1987-88. The catch retained increased considerably in 1989-90 to just over 900 t.

Some oreos are caught by vessels fishing orange roughy aggregations in the Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishery. Approximately 200 t of oreos were landed from this fishery in 1988-89 but the 1989-90 catch was less than 30 t. However, most of the oreo catch in the Bight is reported to be spiky oreos which are normally discarded in favour of orange roughy.

Warty oreos are usually processed into fillets and frozen for both domestic and export markets. As of 1993, approximately 50% of the oreo catch was exported, mainly to Europe and the United States of America. The oreo 'frames' are processed into fertilizer or fishmeal and there is some interest in fish oil production from oreo waste.

Resource status: As of 1993, Australian oreo stocks including warty oreos were probably not fully fished. However, the low reproductive rate of oreos, their likely slow growth rate and their tendency to form dense aggregations may mean that there is a limited scope for expansion of this fishery.