Southern Bluefin Tuna Core and Buffer Zones

• Core and buffer zones, 26 September 2008
• IMPORTANT NOTICE regarding Northern Bluefin Tuna, 8 August 2008

AFMA reviews the location of the Southern Bluefin Tuna Core and Buffer zones in the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery every two weeks, based upon the CSIRO’s habitat preference model and information from AFMA fisheries observers and industry members. AFMA may however review the placement of the Zones if new information becomes available.

To access the Core and Buffer zones, a minimum holding of 500 kgs of SBT quota is required. This year operators are permitted to fish down their quota holdings.

The required level of observer coverage in 2008 varies according to the level of SBT quota attached to a particular boat, and is described in tables 1 and 2 below. Operators are reminded that they are required to notify the AFMA Observer Section 72 hours prior to departure for the Core and Buffer zones.

Table 1: Observer coverage requirements in the Core zone during quota fish down for 2008.

Table 2: Observer coverage requirements in the Buffer zone during quota fish down for 2008.

Change to observer arrangements in the SBT Core and Buffer Zones for the remainder of the 2008 season

Following discussions with industry members at the Ulladulla port visit in June 2008, AFMA will be making a change to the way operators are charged for observer coverage when operating in the Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) Core and Buffer Zones for the remainder of the 2008 season.

Commencing on 10 July 2008, operators who depart for operations in the SBT Zones between midday on the day of the first quarter of the moon, and midday of the last quarter of the moon will be charged for observers on a midday to midday basis. This means that operators get charged for an observer for a 24 hour period commencing at midday. For example if a vessel enters the SBT Core Zone at 1 pm on 10 July and leaves the zones before midday on the 11th of July, they will only be charged for 1 day’s observer coverage.

Operators who depart for the SBT Zones after midday on the day of the last quarter of the moon until midday of the day of the first quarter of the next moon will continue to be charged on a midnight to midnight basis for their observer coverage.

It is hoped these new arrangements will offer a greater degree of flexibility to those operators fishing in the Core and Buffer zones. Table 3 (below) outlines the periods to which these new arrangements will apply:

Table 3: The dates of the first and last quarters of the moon for each month in 2008. Observers will be charged on a midday to midday basis  between  the dates outlined above (eg between 10 July and 25 July). Observers charging arrangements at all other times will remain as they are now on a midnight to midnight basis.

Revised Observer costs for the 2008/09 financial year

Observer costs will continue to be attributed ETBF vessels according to the number of days the vessel is in each zone as determined by the vessel monitoring system (VMS) with invoices issued on a monthly basis.

Table 4 (below) outlines the breakdown of observer costs for operating in the SBT Zones for each of the required levels of observer coverage from 1 July 2008 (GST included):

Table 4: Costs of observer coverage when operating in the SBT Core and Buffer Zones from 1 July 2008.

Notice regarding Northern Bluefin Tuna, 8 August 2008

Recently AFMA has received a number of queries regarding the process for declaring a bluefin tuna caught in the ETBF as a northern bluefin tuna.

If the tuna in question does not satisfy the criteria in the ETBF permit conditions which allows a bluefin tuna to be deemed a northern bluefin tuna, it is considered to be a southern bluefin tuna and required to be covered by SBT quota.

Otherwise should you still wish to deem the fish in question as a northern bluefin tuna, you must provide a sample (as specified in the ETBF permit conditions) for genetic testing to prove the bluefin tuna in question is in fact a northern bluefin tuna. Genetic testing will be at the expense of the operator.

AFMA will not consider any other circumstances or information in deeming a bluefin tuna to be a northern bluefin tuna.

Current SBT core and buffer zones

26 September 2008

There has been a change to location of the SBT Core and Buffer Zones. Commencing at midnight 4 October 2008 the Core and Buffer Zones will be located at:

Core Zone: The northern boundary of the Core Zone will commence at the intersection of latitude 36°S with the coast, then continuing due east.

Buffer Zone The northern boundary of the Buffer Zone will commence at the intersection of latitude 35°S with the coast, continuing east to the intersection of latitude 35°S with longitude 156°E, then continuing north to the intersection of latitude 33°S with longitude 156°E, then continuing due east.

These zones will be reviewed on Tuesday October 7 and will remain in place until this website states otherwise.  A description of methods and outputs of CSIRO’s SBT habitat preference model can be found in the current SBT Zones decision report (PDF, 199 kb).

These zones will be reviewed on 7 October 2008 and will remain in place until this website states otherwise.

For further information contact Trent Timmiss on (02) 6225 5313.

Page last updated 3 October, 2008