Tilapia is a popular item on menus overseas but in Queensland if you catch the pest fish, you can't eat it.
The invasive fish is unable to be consumed, sold or kept as a pet if caught in the wild and must be destroyed.
However, federal government legislation allows the importation of frozen tilapia for consumption.
Native to parts of Africa, India and South and Central America, tilapia was first found in the Sunshine State in the 1970s.
It is now considered an established, restricted and noxious pest.
But with little chance of tilapia being eradicated, some in the fishing industry say it is time Queenslanders were allowed to batter, crumb and eat the fish, just like the rest of the world.
Tilapia has been found in the Mary River on Queensland's Fraser Coast. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)
'Waste of protein'
Since 1986, David Caracciolo has been selling freshly caught seafood from the Great Barrier Reef at his fish market in Mackay in North Queensland.
David Caracciolo hopes Queensland regulations will change to allow wild-caught tilapia to be eaten. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)
But as the industry faces increased pressure, from low stocks and increased regulation, he wants to take advantage of an abundant, accessible source of local protein — the tilapia infesting a nearby wetland known as the Gooseponds.
"We're starving for local fish … it's another form of protein that we're wasting that we could utilise," Mr Caracciolo said.
Nam Sai Farms in Thailand stock barramundi to avoid tilapia escaping from ponds. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)
More than 6,500 kilometres from Mackay, and one hour inland from the bustling Thai capital Bangkok, Nam Sai Farms is among those making use of the fish's global popularity.
According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, Thailand is quickly rising up the ranks of international suppliers, behind powerhouses of production like China, the United States, Brazil and Indonesia.
Aquatic veterinarian at Nam Sai Farms, Jessica Turner, said the fish could be grown sustainably and the risk of it invading other waterways mitigated with proper management.
Jessica Turner grows tilapia and exports to more than 20 countries. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)
"It's a very easy species that you can raise, and they are very disease resistant," Ms Turner said.
"You can raise tilapia easier than any other species. Comparing to shrimp, you will need to bear the risks of the survival rate, but for tilapia, it's easier to do it."
She said the 112-hectare farm, which exported mainly to several countries in Africa and Asia, used barramundi as a kind of border patrol to reduce the risk of the fish spreading.
Nam Sai Farms in Thailand produce about 300 million fry, or juvenile fish, per year. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)
"We need to make sure that it doesn't get out of the farm, so we stock barramundi outside the harbour," she said.
"They are not going to escape from the farm, because the barramundi will eat them all."
Farming tilapia is common in South-East Asian countries, including Thailand. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)
So why can't we eat tilapia?
Senior lecturer with the School of Environment at the University of Queensland, Benjamin Moss, said the 70s aquarium trade was to blame for Queensland's widespread tilapia infestation.
"As far as we know, the main way that tilapia gets moved around river system to river system here in Australia is actually people moving them," Dr Moss said.
"In order to try and minimise the risk of that happening … that that's why this ban against eating them is in place."
Queensland's Department of Primary Industries, which is responsible for biosecurity in the state, confirmed most infestations were caused by people moving the fish, not by natural spread.
"Allowing tilapia to be caught and consumed promotes the keeping of tilapia and their spread through the creation of new 'fisheries'; for example, stocking in dams or releasing them into rivers," a department statement said.
Benjamin Moss says he believes tilapia regulations protect further outbreaks of the pest. (Supplied: Benjamin Moss)
Dr Moss said other countries where the species was a pest had now converted to farming it.
"Tilapia makes a really good fish for farming because it grows quite quickly, it can handle being in not great water conditions, it doesn't mind being crowded, and it pretty much eats everything," he said.
"Some of those introductions have been from escapees from farms."
A spotted tilapia guarding a nest of eggs in far north Queensland. (Supplied: Brendan Ebner)
A juvenile tilapia, found in the Mary River. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)
According to the Department of Primary Industries, attempting to eradicate the pest through recreational fishing, bounties or commercialisation could instead see numbers rise.
Tilapia are known to thrive when larger fish, such as barramundi, are removed from the population and their numbers would increase if they moved into different waterways where there were no such threats.
But Mr Caracciolo believes the reproduction risk could be mitigated to allow Australians to experience the white fish so many other nations find delicious.
Nam Sai Farms outside of Bangkok is about 112 hectares. (ABC News: Abbey Halter)
"They carry the eggs [to reproduce] in their throat or their mouth," he said.
"Why is there not some mechanism where we can catch the fish, cut the head off behind the pectoral fin … bury the head straight away [and then eat it]?
"I hope everybody can go and catch a tilapia and somehow in the future, utilise it [but] not until the law changes."