Proposed Standards and Guidelines for Bycatch Management in Commonwealth Fisheries

Funded Activity Summary

Through its policy on fisheries bycatch, the Commonwealth acknowledges that ecological sustainable development must be based on a strategic approach to addressing bycatch interactions. There is a need to mitigate fishery interactions with non-target species, particularly threatened, endangered and protected (TEP) species, consistent with AFMA’s aim of promoting the sustainable use of fisheries resources by conserving marine ecosystems and biodiversity. Industry, AFMA and researchers have previously collaborated to address bycatch issues in Commonwealth fisheries, with outputs including the implementation of mitigation devices in specific fisheries, the development of bycatch action plans, bycatch workplans and the ecological risk management (ERM) process. In many cases, however, industry cannot readily demonstrate the benefits of these activities, which is critical for differentiating Australian seafood products from those of less environmentally-friendly competitors.

There is a need for an overarching approach to bycatch mitigation to ensure consistent standards across fisheries and transparent indicators of performance. Bycatch issues are often fisheries specific, but the development of mitigation strategies in individual fisheries needs to address the same core elements, e.g. stakeholder consultation, performance testing, monitoring and compliance. Standards are required to ensure that each of these core elements are adequately addressed in response to the emergence of a bycatch issue.

Standards will also assist the fishing industry in fostering positive public perception and meeting legislative requirements, e.g. strategic assessments under the EPBC Act . Standards are particularly important to fisheries seeking to move to co-management where there is a need for greater transparency and accountability.

Objectives:
1. Develop standards for mitigating bycatch in Commonwealth fisheries, including an accompanying set of guidelines for establishing technical criteria for assessing the performance, ongoing monitoring and review of bycatch mitigation measures.
2. Test the proposed standards and guidelines on a bycatch issue in a key Commonwealth fishery.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-08-2010

End Date: 15-12-2011

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $179,551.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

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ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Bycatch | Fisheries Management | Migration | Modelling | Risk reduction | Sustainability

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