Fisheries Management (Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery) Regulations (Amendment) 1995 No. 359
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1995 No. 359
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Resources
Fisheries Management Act 1991
Fisheries Management (Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery) Regulations (Amendment)
Subsection 168 (1) of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (the Act) empowers the GovernorGeneral to make regulations required or permitted by the Management Act to be prescribed.
The Fisheries Management (Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery) Regulations (the principal Regulations) complement the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery Management Plan 1995 (the Plan), which was determined by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA.) ,under subsection 17 (1) of the Act. Among other things, the Plan allows Australia to comply with its obligations under the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (the Convention).
Australia, Japan and New Zealand have each signed and ratified the Convention. The Convention is administered by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (the Commission). The Commission determines a global total allowable catch (global TAC) of Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) for each global season and allocates that global TAC among the 3 member countries. Due to the migratory nature of SBT, the seasons in each member country to which a global TAC applies have different start and end dates.
The Plan provides for management of the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery (the fishery) by means of a system of statutory fishing rights (SFRs). Under the Plan, a holder of SFRs (known as an operator) is permitted to take a particular quantity by weight of SBT tor each SFR held during an Australian season. The Plan provides, among other things, how AFMA is to determine the quantity. The total quantity that AFMA determines for all SFRs (AusCatch) cannot, under the Plan, be greater than the Australian allocation of the global TAC.
Among other things, the principal Regulations define the Australian season.
The purpose of the Fisheries Management (Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery) Regulations (Amendment) (the Regulations) is to amend the principal Regulations to alter the definition of the Australian season.
The principal Regulations presently specify the current Australian season to run from the beginning of 1 November 1994 to 30 November 1995 and subsequent seasons to run from the beginning of 1 December in a year to the end of 30 November in the next year.
The proposed Regulations would extend the current Australian season until the end of 15 December 1995 and provide that subsequent Australian seasons run from the beginning of 16 December in a year to the end of 15 December in the next year.
The Regulations provide significant benefits to operators in the fishery, who are unlikely to catch SBT against all of their SFRs during the current Australian season.
The Australian season was recently extended by a previous amendment to the principal Regulations. However, a joint venture in the fishery between Australian holders of SFRs and the Japanese interests who carried out the fishing under those SFRs recently ceased operations, following the withdrawal of Japanese fishing boats from the venture for an indefinite period.
This has the effect of potentially leaving a much greater than anticipated number of SFRs not fished against by the end of the Australian season.
Extension of the current Australian season until 15 December minimises this loss of catch by allowing more time for Australian boats to catch SBT against those SFRs.
As the AusCatch for the current Australian season is not affected (either directly or indirectly) by the Regulations, the extension of the current Australian season in the manner proposed does not contravene Australia's obligations under the Convention. In addition, the proposed Regulations set subsequent seasons at 12 months duration, to discourage the variation of future Australian seasons in the fishery a matter of course.
The extension of the current Australian season and the realignment of future Australian seasons have been agreed between AFMA and industry, to ensure that major fishing expected to occur off South Australia in late December each year and early in the subsequent year is not unnecessarily restricted. Setting the commencement of the new Australian season on 16 December means that this major fishing will be carried on early in each new Australian season, when unused SFRs are plentiful.
The Regulations are supported by the Southern Tuna Management Advisory Committee, an advisory body to AFMA and by the major industry body in the fishery, the Tuna Boat Owners Association of Australia.
Details of the Regulations, which commenced on gazettal, are set out below:
Regulation 1 provides that the Regulations amend the principal Regulations.
Regulation 2 amends regulation 2 of the principal Regulations by deleting the definition of the season and inserting a new regulation 2A. The new regulation 2A includes the new definition of the season and is drafted to make the relationship between the principal Regulations and the Plan more clear, as most of the implications of the change in the definition of the season relate to the Plan.