Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 16—Forestry and fishing 665
Fisheries legislation and territorial
arrangements
The Commonwealth has jurisdiction over waters
between three and 200 nautical miles seaward of
the territorial sea baseline of Australia and its
external territories. This area, the AFZ, covers a
total of 8.9 million square kilometres.
Conversely, the States and the Northern Territory
have jurisdiction over inland fisheries and marine
waters up to three nautical miles. To aid the
management of Australian fisheries, arrangements
known as Offshore Constitutional Settlements
(OCS) have been entered into, which transfer
jurisdiction from the Commonwealth to the State
or Territory.
Fisheries Management Act 1991 and the
AFZ
The Commonwealth Fisheries Management Act
1991 is the main fisheries legislation, and applies
to commercial fishing for swimming and
sedentary species in the AFZ. The establishment
of the AFZ in 1979 brought portions of oceanic
tuna stocks, and demersal and pelagic fish stocks
previously utilised by foreign fishing vessels,
under Australian control.
Fishery management plans are central to the Act
and contain all essential rules applying to the
management of a fishery. A management plan
normally operates through a system of statutory
fishing rights, which allows long term access to
the fishery. The Act also provides for limited term
fishing permits, which are primarily designed for
the management of fish resources that are not yet
under a management plan. Individual transferable
quotas (ITQs) are commonly used to achieve a
reduction in fishing levels. A particular fishery is
assigned a total allowable catch, and the market
for ITQs will determine the most efficient
allocation of resources.
Australia has an international obligation, under
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea, to allow foreign nations access to surplus
domestic fish stocks within the AFZ where such
access does not conflict with Australian
management and development objectives. To
facilitate the process, the Act allows Australia to
make bilateral agreements or joint venture
arrangements with the government or
commercial interests of other countries, under
which foreign fishing licences will be granted.
In 1995, Australia signed the UN Fish Stocks
Agreement to further our national interest in
combating the problems of unsustainable fishing
practices on the high seas. At present all
countries have the right to fish the high seas.
However, some fish species spend part of their
lives within national fishing boundaries and
adjacent high seas. The agreement aims for
sustainable fishing of these stocks by means of a
cooperative treaty. This is important for Australia
because some of its significant fish species, such
as orange roughy, tuna and billfish, are
distributed beyond the limits of the AFZ or
migrate through it.
Australia, Japan and New Zealand are parties to
the Convention for the Conservation of Southern
Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), which came into force in
1994. As part of its conservation management
responsibilities for the global southern bluefin
tuna industry, the CCSBT Commission annually
determines a total allowable catch for the fishery
and allocates this between the three CCSBT
parties in the form of national quotas.
The total allowable catch of SBT has been set at
11,750 tonnes since 1989, with national
allocations for Australia, Japan and New Zealand
of 5,265 tonnes, 6,065 tonnes and 420 tonnes
respectively. These quotas have remained fixed as
the parties have been unable to reach agreement
on changes. Japan’s attempts to raise its quota
through a unilateral experimental fishing
program resulted in Japan catching around 1,460
tonnes and 2,200 tonnes above its quota in 1998
and 1999 respectively. As a result Australia has
implemented bans on Japan’s access to the AFZ
and Australian ports.
The Treaty on Fisheries between the
Governments of Certain Pacific Island States and
the Government of the United States (USA) forms
the Schedule to the Act. The effect of this is that
US tuna boats are given treaty licences in
accordance with the provisions of the Treaty.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999 replaces the Whale
Protection Act 1980 and the Endangered Species
Protection Act 1992 in providing protection for all
cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in
Commonwealth waters. The States and
Territories have similar legislation. Australia
supports a ban on whaling in international waters
and is progressing this through the International
Whaling Commission processes.