The Fisheries Legislation Amendment (New Governance Arrangements for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Other Matters) Bill 2008 will help to protect the country’s $2 billion fishing industry.<\/p>\n
According to a statement, it gives stronger powers to border protection officers to apprehend ships involved in illegal fishing and creates new offences for Australian citizens involved in poaching overseas.<\/p>\n
The new powers relate to officers working for the Australian Customs Service, the Australian Defence Force or the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.<\/p>\n
The legislation would:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Allow officials to pursue and seize vessels which are supporting illegal fishing activities (by providing fuel, freezer storage or other support), rather than just pursue the primary vessel involved<\/p>\n
\u2022 Require unlicensed foreign vessels moving through the Australian fishing zone to stow their fishing equipment \u2013 making it harder for them to fish illegally<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ensure that Australian citizens engaged in illegal fishing in other regions can be prosecuted under Australian laws<\/p>\n
\u2022 Deliver on an election commitment to convert AFMA to a fisheries commission under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 and a statutory authority<\/p>\n
\u201cIllegal fishing is a dangerous and damaging activity which costs our fishing industry, puts pressure on fish stocks and can spread pests or disease,\u201d Mr Burke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia is a recognised world-leader in fighting illegal fishing \u2013 both internationally and within our own waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sustainability of species such as trepang, shark and Patagonian toothfish are at risk from illegal fishing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rudd Labor Government will continue fighting illegal fishing to protect our seafood industries and our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is anticipated that the new AFMA arrangements will be in place by 1 July 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week the Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke, introduced legislation to boost the nation\u2019s powers to fight illegal fishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-2157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=2157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}