This draft allocation report is the result of a review of the Department of Fisheries' Integrated Fisheries Management Report on the Pinctada maxima resource, scientific reports on the resource, and informal discussions with commercial license holders and recreational fishers by the Allocation Committee. The views expressed in this draft allocation report are those of the allocation committee and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Fisheries or the Minister of Fisheries. At the end of the comment period, the Allocations Committee will consider all submissions and finalize its advice to the Minister on allocations for P.
After receiving the advice of the Allocation Committee, the Minister, in accordance with Government policy, will determine the allocations for the sectors.
The Allocation Committee
Disclosure of Interest
If a member had an interest in any matter to be considered by the Appropriations Committee, the member disclosed the interest, the disclosure was recorded in the minutes of the Committee, and the member did not vote on the matter. Mr Lodge has an interest in the processing sector of this fishery and Mr Longson is a non-executive director of Western Australian Resources Ltd, which has an interest in the land-based aquaculture venture.
Guiding principles
Mr Lodge has an interest in the processing sector of this fishery and Mr Longson is a non-executive director of Western Australian Resources Ltd, which has an interest in the land-based aquaculture venture. . iii). Decisions should be made on the best available information and where this information is uncertain, unreliable, insufficient or unavailable, a precautionary approach should be adopted to manage the risk to fish stocks, marine communities and the environment. A harvest level, which as far as possible includes the total mortality resulting from each sector's fishing activity, should be established for each fishery1 and the allocation set for use by the commercial sector, the recreational sector, the customary sector and aquaculture. the sector should become clear. c).
If this happens, steps must be taken that are consistent with the impact of each sector to reduce decline to a level that does not jeopardize future sustainability. vi) Appropriate management structures and processes must be put in place to manage each sector within their prescribed allocation. Allocation decisions should aim to maximize the use of fish resources for the Western Australian community and take into account economic, social, cultural and environmental factors. Realistically, it will take time to achieve this and the implementation of these objectives is likely to be incremental over time. viii).
It must remain open to public policy to determine the priority use of fish stocks when there is a clear case for doing so. ix) Management arrangements should allow sectors to access their allocation. There should be a limited capacity for transferring allocations not used by a sector for use by that sector in future years, provided the outcome does not affect resource sustainability. 1 Fisheries are defined in the FRMA as one or more fish stocks or parts of fish stocks that can be treated as a unit for conservation or management purposes; and a class of fishing activities related to those stocks or parts of fish stocks.
The Allocation Committee’s Terms of Reference
Additional principles to provide further guidance on allocation decisions may also be established for individual fisheries. To date, the Allocation Committee has been asked for advice and has made recommendations on allocations for West Coast lobster, abalone (with a focus on the Perth metropolitan region) and West Coast demersal scales (such as dufish, capelin and pink snapper). . These allocations result in ministerial decisions to allocate the western lobster resource with 5% to the recreational sector, 95% to the commercial sector and 1 tonne to the conventional sector.
40 tons of roe juice was allocated to the recreational sector, 36 tons to the commercial sector and 500 kg to the usual sector. The recreational sector was allocated 36% of the West Coast demersal shale resource and 64% was allocated to the commercial sector. In August 2013, the Minister referred the pearl oyster (P. maxima) resource to the Allocation Committee for advice on its allocation.
Ministerial Advice
Scope of the Allocation
Additional Guiding Principles Adopted by the Allocation Committee
The Allocation Committee recognizes that the optimization of community benefits is one of the most important issues in the allocation of fish resources. While noting that there is no recent objective information for this fishery (the last report was produced in 20022) and that the significant social and economic benefits of the recreational sector have been difficult to measure, the Allocation Committee believes it is important to address these issues. In accordance with Principle 4 in Section 4.1.2, the Allocation Committee considers that the initial allocation should take into account both historical fishing shares and Principle 7, which considers economic, social, cultural and environmental factors.
The commercial pearling industry is governed under the provisions of the Pearling Act 1990 (the Pearling Act) and the Pearling (General) Regulations 1991. MPG 17, issued under section 24 of the Pearling Act, sets out the management objectives for the pearling industry , such as: .. a) control over the collection of pearl oysters from wild stocks;. The Director General of the Department grants leases, licenses and permits under section 24 of the Pearling Act, subject to conditions and subject to MPG 17.
Under S 7 of the Pearl Act, a person must hold a pearling license or pearling license to catch P. Under current IFM policy, the allocation committee must consider an allocation of available fish stocks to the commercial, recreational and customary catch sectors. The second reading speech of the Pearling Act 1990 (the Pearling Act) dealt with the commercial management of the pearling industry and made no mention of other industries that might have access to the resource.
As the Allocation Committee understands that bycatch of pearl oysters is known (albeit small), it would be unconscionable for the Committee to ignore the issue and considers it within its jurisdiction to advise on the matter45. While understanding the concerns of the PPA and WAFIC regarding the potential illegal catch of farmed pearl oysters, the Allocation Committee believes that the recognition of small bycatch by the public does not increase the safety risk. Environmental Impact Assessment of Wild Pearl (Pinctada maxima) Aquaculture in Western Australia.
The Minister will be responsible for determining the process and timelines for resolving allocation issues in each fishery based on advice from the CEO of the Department of Fisheries and the Integrated Fisheries Allocation Advisory.
Commercial Sector
The Recreational Sector
The Customary Sector
Customary Sector Catch
In most cases, the normal catch is small compared to the commercial and recreational sectors, and there is a lack of quantitative information on which to base informed allocation decisions. A recent High Court of Australia decision, Karpany and others v Dietman (2013) High Court Appeal 47, concerned the application of state fisheries legislation to native title holders fishing for abalone in their local area in South Australia. In considering the issue of pearl oyster allocations for conventional fishing purposes, the Allocations Committee further considered the nature of conventional fishing rights and how these rights should be treated in current and future allocations.
Customary fishing rights predate the introduction of common law (and property concepts) in Australia. As a result, the fundamental nature of customary fishing rights/native fishing title is fundamentally different from commercial and recreational fishing property (access) rights enjoyed under Australian common law. The allocation concluded that customary fishing rights are not property rights and therefore cannot be included in a "total allowable catch" or traded in the same way as commercial or recreational fishing access rights.
Based on these considerations and in relation to pearl oysters, the Allocation Committee has taken the view that it should not recommend a concrete allocation for ordinary fishing. Any future allocation recommendations from the Allocation Committee regarding customary fishing will be in accordance with this principle. Customary fishing should continue in accordance with existing customary fishing rights and no specific allocation should be made.
Recreational Sector Catch
In addition, they believed that this fell outside the Terms of Reference and Guiding Principles of the Allocation Committee.
Commercial Sector Catch
The Allocation Committee recommends that specific policies be developed to manage the small incidental yield of P. The Pearling Industry of Australia: An account of its Social and Economic Development, Department of Commerce and Agriculture, NSW University of Technology, Newcastle, New South Wales. The Pearling Industry of Western Australia Fisheries Education Publication Number 3, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Perth Western Australia.
The Government is committed to implementing an integrated management system for the sustainable management of Western Australia's fisheries. The Ministry of Fisheries, in consultation with sectors, will examine opportunities to standardize catch information between sectors, noting that the scale of data collection and reporting must be appropriate for each individual fishery. The following principles will be adopted (by incorporating them into either legislation, ministerial policy guidelines or government policy, as appropriate) as the basis for an integrated fisheries management policy. i) Fisheries resources are a common property resource managed by the Government for the benefit of present and future generations. ii) Sustainability is paramount and ecological impacts must be considered when determining appropriate harvest levels. iii).
A harvest level, which as far as possible includes the total mortality resulting from each sector's fishing activity, should be established for each fishery6 and the allocation set for use by the commercial sector, the recreational sector, the customary sector and aquaculture. sector, should be made clear. c). A sustainability report will be prepared for each fishery to be considered under the IFM Policy in accordance with the "Policy for the implementation of ecologically sustainable development for fisheries and aquaculture in Western Australia". The Chief Executive, Department of Fisheries, will adopt a sustainability report for each fishery, which provides advice on appropriate.
These will be formalized on the basis of proportional catch shares using the best information available at the time when the Integrated Fisheries Allocation Advisory Committee starts its process (see below). Where a reallocation of resources from one sector to another results in a demonstrable financial loss to a licensed commercial fisherman or licensed aquaculture operator, compensation should in principle be considered.
