World Fishing: How would you describe the general state of the Australian fishing industry at the moment?
Ian Macdonald: The general state of the Australian fishing industry varies across the wide range of fisheries that exist in Australia. Broadly speaking the fishing industry has enjoyed the strong economic conditions that have been present in my country for the second half of the 1990s, specifically historically low interest and exchange rates that lifted the industry's export competitiveness.
There has also been a rapid expansion in the aquaculture sector over the past decade, which has contributed to meeting the demands of Australian seafood consumers.
The Australian economy is still strong, however a strengthening Australian Dollar, the recently past SARS outbreak, softening global seafood markets and the high world oil price has made doing business in the Australian Industry somewhat harder.
During my time as the Australian Fisheries Minister I have become aware that some sectors of the Australian fishing industry are struggling currently and I am working through the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) in partnership with the Australian fishing industry to identify areas where the Government can assist to ease the burden that some fishing operations are currently facing. This does not include the use of subsidies, as Australia does not believe in the use of what are ultimately market-distorting measures for its primary industries. This position has been consistently and clearly articulated by Australia, and its Cairns Group partners, through the World Trade Organisation.
WF: What does Australia have to offer to other countries/vessels wishing to fish in Australian waters?
IM: Australian waters are closed to foreign fleets and have been since 1997 when the Japanese tuna fleet last fished within the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ). It would be unlikely that Australia would open any of its fisheries to foreign vessels as Australian boats successfully target and harvest the nation's fisheries resources in a sustainable way.
It is possible for overseas companies and individuals to invest in the Australian fishing industry by buying current licences and into businesses operating in Australia. There are currently a number of joint venture arrangements in place, however, investments over a certain level must be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
WF: What is the country doing to encourage foreign vessels?
IM: Further to the information above, foreign vessels can only fish in Australian waters if they are fishing for an Australian company and deemed to be Australian boats. This occurs rarely.
My Government is however reviewing its port access guidelines policy, which may open Australian ports to foreign vessels for their service requirements.
WF: What are the main countries where Australian fleets fish and what are they fishing for?
IM: There is very little, if any Australian fishing activity in the fishing zones of other nations. The Australian fleet predominantly fishes in the AFZ, which is the third largest on the planet, the adjacent high seas areas, and the sub-Antarctic. Species targeted include Patagonian Toothfish, Big Eye and Yellow Fin Tuna, Broadbill Swordfish, Alfonsino, and Orange Roughy. The Australian Government, through my Department, assists Australian operators make the necessary arrangements with foreign Governments if they wish to fish the waters of another country.
WF: Which type of agreements does Australia have with other countries regarding fishing?
IM: Australia has a number of long-term bilateral arrangements with other countries. These are generally co-operative agreements that aim to ensure sustainable management and use of fisheries where our two nations have common interests. For example, Australia and Papua New Guinea share the Torres Strait Protected Zone fisheries and meet regularly to determine the most effective management and catch sharing arrangements for this area. Australia also shares a long maritime boundary with Indonesia and Indonesian traditional fishermen have access to an area know as the 'MOU Box', which is inside Australian waters in the north west of the AFZ. Officials from both Governments meet twice yearly to try to improve management and understanding of our shared fisheries. Australia and New Zealand have a memorandum of understanding that relates to the sustainable management of the South Tasman Rise, that was the subject of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the mid-1990s, and has since yielded significantly smaller catches than had historically occurred.
As well as Australia's bilateral agreements my country is very active in a variety of multilateral fora, such as the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) that will come into being later this year, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), as well as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developments IUU Fishing Ministerial Taskforce, of which I am a member.
Australia also works very closely with nations such as Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Korea, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, France, our Pacific Island neighbours, and more recently a range of Indian Ocean Rim nations in order to pursue the shared goals of improved global fisheries management and the stamping out of IUU fishing.
It is my view that significant political will is required to address high seas fisheries sustainability in order for future generations to be able to pursue a legitimate career in the world's fishing industries. I have been heartened to date by my personal contact with Fisheries Ministers from many countries, but believe that this commitment now needs to filter through to the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) in order for them to make some tough management decisions for the benefit of the world's fish stocks, as opposed to being saddled by what can only be described as inertia in some RFMOs.
WF: For how long do you usually have these agreements?
IM: These relationships have been developed over the years and I see them continuing well into the future. The emergence of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations to manage the fish stocks on the high seas has made it increasingly important that countries co-operate in the management and harvesting of these stocks and not merely pay lip service to the goal of sustainability.
WF: What is the status of Australia's fish stocks?
IM: The gross production of Australia's fisheries in 2002--03 was 249 000 tonnes, with a value of AUD$2.3 billion (including the value of aquaculture, which contributes 33% of the total).
Many Australian fisheries target high-value species such as lobsters, prawns, abalone and Australia's fish stocks are generally very well managed with the Western Australian Rock Lobster Fishery being the first in the world to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. This is not to say that we do not have our problems. The Australian Government Bureau of Rural Sciences assesses the stock status of Australia's major commercial species and it currently lists that 16 of these species are overfished.
Fisheries managed by the Australian Government have recovery plans monitoring in place and some of these are already yielding positive results. For longer-lived species, such as Orange Roughy, it will obviously take a much longer period of time to rebuild those stocks.
One of the key threats to some Australian commercial species is IUU fishing. This is a particular concern in the Southern Ocean where Patagonian Toothfish is poached by organised international criminal syndicates. Australia does not tolerate breaches of its sovereign rights and has committed upwards of $100 million over two years for permanent armed patrols of its interests in the Southern Ocean. This will compliment a range of other measures to address this issue that may be less obvious than boats on the water.
Australia also has very strong environmental legislation that requires that all fisheries with an export component be assessed to demonstrate that they are sustainable. The certification requires that this is true for target, byproduct, and bycatch species, and the broader marine environment. This legislation is complemented by Bycatch Action Plans for Australian fisheries, and Australia's world leading Oceans Policy that is guiding the development of regional marine plans for Australia's vast marine jurisdiction, as well as establishing a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (further information can be sought from www.oceans.gov.au).
WF: How best would you describe the fisheries management in Australia?
IM: Generally speaking each State and the Northern Territory manage fisheries resources from the shore out to three nautical miles (nm), and the Australian Government, through the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), manages fisheries resources from 3nm to the edge of the AFZ (200nm). There are exceptions to this that are enshrined in a series of agreements with the different Australian jurisdictions that are described as Offshore Constitutional Settlements. One example is the Australian Government managing Tuna, Billfish, and other highly migratory species across their range. The Australian Government also manages Australian operators on the high seas.
AFMA is a statutory authority that is administered by an independent Board of Directors in order to keep politics out of fisheries management. This model is strongly supported by the Australian fishing industry, and AFMA has adopted the partnership approach where fisheries management decisions are made in consultation with the fishing industry.
AFMA manages through a combination of limited access, and input and output controls. It was confirmed in the recent Policy Review Looking to the Future: A Review of Commonwealth Fisheries Policy (available at www.daff.gov.au/corporate_docs/publications/pdf/fisheries/fish_policy/fisheries_policy.pdf) that there is a general preference for the use of output controls in the form of individual transferable quotas (ITQs), however spatial, temporal and gear controls are also used where it is deemed that they are a more suitable management tool than ITQs.The underlying premise of fisheries management in Australia is that the Nation's fisheries resources are owned by the community, and the rights to harvest these resources are then owned by individuals or companies.
The Australian Government is committed to providing the most secure long-term access rights that it can to the fishing sector in order to promote certainty amongst the fishing industry. There is a twofold reasoning behind this approach. Firstly it allows for an appropriate level of investment to be made by operators in Australian fisheries and making it easier for those operators to secure finance for their businesses; and secondly, and perhaps more importantly it encourages concession holders to take a long-term view of their harvesting operations rather than promoting the classic "race to fish" scenarios that have led to the demise of so many fisheries around the world.
