An additional condition has been added to the trawl fishing license in South East Australia.
From 1 November this year, all trawl vessels must have, and must work to, a seabird management plan approved by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA).
If South East trawl vessels do not work to approved SMPs they will be in breach of their license conditions.
SMPs are tailored to individual vessels and all plans contain ways to manage offal so that birds are not attracted to the vessel, along with some sort of physical device to discourage birds away from warps, such as the pinky buoy system used on many vessels.
Over the last few months AFMA has visited every vessel in the fishery with the result that all vessels now have approved SMPs. The South East Trawl Fishery Industry Association (SETFIA) has engaged Oceanwatch to conduct random surveys of fishermen at the wharf to determine their knowledge of their SMP. If fishermen can recount and show evidence of their SMP while on the wharf then this is a good indicator that they are following it while fishing.
SETFIA and AFMA will work together to put a project in place to show that SMPs are indeed effective. South East trawl fishermen are said to be convinced that SMPs are working very well and have reduced interactions to very low levels.
