Australia: A process of regulatory reform is currently occurring at AFMA to simplify regulation across fisheries and reduce management costs. AFMA is reviewing quota management arrangements as part of this regulatory reform process.
Quota statutory fishing rights (SFRs) have been successively introduced into Commonwealth fisheries since 1983 when Southern Bluefin Tuna was first brought under quota management.
There are now 59 species or species groups managed as 38 separate quota stocks in five Commonwealth fisheries (Scalefish and Shark, Scallop, Southern Bluefin Tuna, Heard and McDonald Island, and Macquarie Island). A further 14 species (stocks or species groups) will come under quota management in the Northern Prawn, Eastern and Western Tuna and Billfish, and Small Pelagic fisheries in the next one to three years.
The rules adopted to manage quota vary considerably between fisheries increasing administrative complexity and cost and in some circumstances making monitoring and enforcement difficult.
The quota management project will evaluate the current rules applying to quota management across all fisheries and develop a set of 'best practice quota rules' that will be applied across all quota-managed fisheries in future. These rules will be used to develop a quota management policy for AFMA.
All aspects of current quota management arrangements will be looked at including:
• Overcatch / undercatch / reconciliation processes
• Impacts of “unaccounted quota” (discarding, catches of quota species taken in non-target fisheries, state catches and personal use)
• Effectiveness of catch verification processes and fraud risks
• Administrative complexity and associated costs.
AFMA has worked with the Commonwealth Fisheries Association (CFA) to establish an industry expert panel to provide input and advice to the review, identify industry issues and concerns requiring consideration, and work with AFMA to develop options for analysis.
A discussion paper with all the proposed regulatory reforms, including the best practice quota rules, will be released later in 2009.
