Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 125

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 125

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Resources

Fisheries Management Act 1991

Fisheries Management Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 8 (1) of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (the Management Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the purpose of extending the application of the Management Act to specified areas outside the Australian fishing zone (AFZ). Section 42 of the Management Act empowers the Governor-General to make regulations providing for the holders of fishing concessions to record and furnish returns relating to the taking, carrying, transhipping and processing of fish and the sale or disposal of fish taken.

Australia has recently entered into a trilateral convention with Japan and New Zealand, known as the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna. The objective of the Convention is to ensure, through appropriate management, the conservation and optimum utilisation of southern bluefin tuna (SBT). Because SBT is a highly migratory species, the convention does not specify an area to which it applies.

Before Australia may ratify the Convention, Australia must be in a position to give effect to its obligations under the Convention.

Article 6 of the Convention establishes the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna. The combined effect of Articles 5 and 8 of the Convention is to require Australia to ensure that Australian fishers and vessels do not breach measures and quota decided by the Commission and that Australia provides the Commission with scientific information, fishing catch and effort statistics.

As Australian nationals take part in fishing for SBT on the high seas, these obligations can only be fulfilled if the application of the Management Act is extended beyond the outer limit of the AFZ.

The area to which the application of the Management Act has been extended, covers an area of waters from the South Atlantic in the West to the South Pacific in the East. This is because SBT spawn in an area of the Indian Ocean, south of lava and then separate into two streams. One stream migrates westward around South Africa into the Atlantic Ocean and the other migrates around Australia into the Pacific Ocean.

The Regulations amend the Fisheries Management Regulations to extend the application of the Management Act to:

•       Australian citizens;

•       bodies corporate that are incorporated in Australia or carry on activities mainly in Australia;

•       Australian boats; and

•       persons on board Australian boats;

fishing for SBT outside the area of the AFZ but within an area covering parts of the Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Pacific Oceans.

As a consequence of the extended application of the Management Act, the Regulations amend provisions of the Fisheries Management Regulations that relate to requirements to complete and furnish logbook returns, so that persons to whom the Management Act applies in its extended application, are also be subject to the logbook requirements.

Details of the Regulations, which commenced on gazettal, are:

Regulation 1 provides for the amendment of the Regulations.

Regulation 2 amends Regulation 4 of the Fisheries Management Regulations by adding two subregulations. New subregulation 4(2) extends the application of the Management Act to particular persons, boats and entities fishing for SBT and new subregulation 4(3) defines the area of waters beyond the AFZ to which the Management Act is to apply.

Regulation 3 amends Regulation 31(1) of the Fisheries Management Regulations by adding paragraphs 31(1)(g) and 31(1)(h), which extend the purposes for which the Australian Fisheries Management Authority may require information be recorded in logbooks to include fishing in areas beyond the AFZ to which the Management Act applies and the processing and disposal of such fish.