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The domestic and international environment
The fisheries management environment is marked by uncertainty. Over the next five years, AFMA has identified the following major domestic and
international influences as likely to impact on ecological sustainability, fishery
economics and organisational resources.
Domestic environment
- Overfished target stocks – the impacts of targeted fishing over many
decades are impacting on some species. Significant reductions in catch and
implementation of recovery strategies for some species will need to continue.
- Too much fishing capacity and effort – many Commonwealth fisheries
still have more fishing capacity than necessary to maintain economic efficiency
and sustainable catches. Reducing impediments to autonomous adjustment of
fishing capacity to changing resource and economic conditions is a major issue
for fisheries management. Market-based adjustment should also help to address
the risks of further over-capitalisation in fisheries.
- Economic pressures – market price pressures and rising operating costs
are impacting on the incomes of Australian fishers. These commercial realities
are issues for consideration in fisheries management.
- Resource sharing – sharing of access to fisheries resources, particularly
between the commercial and recreational sectors, is in the process of
government policy resolution.
- Ecosystem sustainability – responses to a growing emphasis on
ecological sustainability, including additional legislative requirements under the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and policy
developments such as Integrated Oceans Management, are placing added
demands on AFMA’s resources and management responses. Assessing the
broader marine ecosystem impacts and risks of fishing is complex and requires
greater information, with its associated increasing resource demands.
- Co-management – stakeholder expectations of AFMA, both as a natural
resource management agency and a regulator, are continuing to increase
in line with growing pressures on operators and the marine environment.
Enhanced processes to engage stakeholders and develop agreed and
appropriate responses to issues is resource intensive for both government
and stakeholders.
- Adjustment pressures on regional communities – the fishing
industry is an integral part of many coastal communities. The impacts of
fisheries management decisions, particularly those with the potential to
involve significant structural adjustment, will need to continue to be assessed
by government.
- Commonwealth Fisheries Policy Review – Implementation of the
Review, which identified over 50 initiatives for fisheries management and
broader policy action, will continue.
- Cost recovery – Following a review of its cost recovery policy for
Commonwealth fisheries in accordance with the Government’s new Cost
Recovery Guidelines for Regulatory Agencies, the Authority ‘certified’ new cost
recovery arrangements. These will apply from the 2004-05 financial year and
are subject to review in 2008.
International environment
- Depletion of fish stocks – a worldwide expansion in fishing effort has
left many of the world’s fish stocks and fisheries depleted. Displacement of this
fishing effort from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere is of growing concern.
Often such fishing involves large, technologically advanced vessels working
on the high seas for extended periods. Targeting of long lived, slow breeding,
geographically specific species is a matter of concern to the international
community and is being debated in the UN.
- IUU fishing – Australia is increasingly experiencing the impacts of illegal,
unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. Such activities are undermining
national and regional management efforts.
- RFMOs – Australia is involved in a number of Regional Fishery Management
Organisations (RFMOs) and other international fora whose conventions and
decisions have an impact on high seas and domestic fish stocks. Australia will
be pursuing greater effectiveness of international fora in delivering sustainability,
particularly in the Pacific Ocean where the newly formed Western and Central
Pacific Fisheries Commission must address growing fishing pressures on
tuna stocks.
- Market factors – Market prices for fisheries products and costs of
production affect the profitability of fishers. Unfavourable changes in the
exchange rate and changes in export market demands are contributing to
reduced incomes for Australian fishers.
Page last updated
5 June, 2005
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