Data principles

Our responsibilities for the management, collection, verification and analysis of data for Commonwealth fisheries are defined by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority ’s (AFMA’s) principles for data management, collection, verification and analysis. These principles were approved by the AFMA Board in October 2002 and guide all our decisions in relation to managing, collecting and using data for managing Commonwealth fisheries.

Principles for data management, collection, verification and analysis

Background

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) has responsibility under the Fisheries Administration Act 1991 and the Fisheries Management Act 1991 for implementing fisheries management arrangements. Under that same legislation AFMA is accountable to the fishing industry and the Australian community for the success of its management arrangements in pursuing the objectives set out in the legislation.

Other legislation such as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 also impose an obligation to collect and verify data. In the case of the EPBC Act this is for the purpose of strategically assessing fisheries against conservation criteria.

In managing fisheries AFMA therefore has a responsibility to monitor the impact of fishing under its arrangements and must collect and verify data for this purpose. The data must be the most appropriate for monitoring fishing practices and AFMA’s pursuit of its management objectives. Accuracy, precision and adequacy are key concerns in this regard.

Collecting data on fish stocks and the broader ecosystem on which they depend is an inherently large and difficult task. AFMA must have regard for the resources available to it for managing fisheries and must maximise the benefits that it can achieve with those resources.

To maximise the cost effectiveness and quality of data used to monitor fishing practices and management, AFMA will use data from a range of sources. This will include data supplied by the fishing industry as well as data from independent sources. In this context independent means independent of the fishing industry not independent of AFMA.

Data principles

The data principles which apply to Commonwealth fisheries are:

  1. Collection, verification, management and analysis of data are an integral part of fisheries management;
  2. Data collection, verification and management and analysis programs should be developed and implemented for all Commonwealth fisheries;
  3. All data collection and verification programs must be developed or approved to ensure appropriate data standards are used and a high level of confidence, quality, and consistency in the information collected;
  4. The collection and verification of data are contestable services which can be undertaken either by AFMA or an AFMA approved supplier to ensure cost effective service delivery;
  5. All data collected under AFMA funded programs for Commonwealth fisheries will be owned by AFMA, stored in a suitable format or database using recognised data standards approved by AFMA and be made available for management and research purposes;
  6. The cost of all data collection, verification and management and analysis programs should be attributed and recovered under the principles of the Government’s cost recovery policy for AFMA;
  7. All data collection, verification, management and analysis programs will be subject to AFMA’s Information Disclosure Policy.