Commercial Lakes and Coorong Fishery Management Plan
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Management Plan for the South Australian Commercial Lakes and Coorong Fishery MARCH 2016 MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL LAKES AND COORONG FISHERY Approved by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries pursuant to section 44 of the Fisheries Management Act 2007 Hon Leon Bignell Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries 1 March 2016 Page 1 of 166 PIRSA Fisheries and Aquaculture (A Division of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia) GPO Box 1625 ADELAIDE SA 5001 www.pir.sa.gov.au/fisheries Tel: (08) 8226 0900 Fax: (08) 8226 0434 © Primary Industries and Regions South Australia 2015 Front cover image courtesy of Tom Rocha Photography Disclaimer: This management plan has been prepared pursuant to the Fisheries Management Act 2007 (South Australia) for the purpose of the administration of that Act. The Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA (and the Government of South Australia) make no representation, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this management plan or as to the suitability of that information for any particular purpose. Use of or reliance upon information contained in this management plan is at the sole risk of the user in all things and the Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA (and the Government of South Australia) disclaim any responsibility for that use or reliance and any liability to the user. Copyright Notice: This work is copyright. Copyright in this work is owned by the Government of South Australia. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth), no part of this work may be reproduced by any process without written permission of the Government of South Australia. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction of this work should be addressed to the Chief Executive, Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA, 25 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000 (marked attention Executive Director, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division). The South Australian Fisheries Management Series Paper number 72: Management Plan for the South Australian Commercial Lakes and Coorong Fishery ISBN 978-0-9924621-7-8 ISSN 1322-8072 Page 2 of 166 CONTENTS FISHERY TO WHICH THIS PLAN APPLIES .................................................... 7 CONSISTENCY WITH OTHER MANAGEMENT PLANS ................................. 7 TERM OF PLAN ............................................................................................... 7 NRM MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE .................................................... 8 4.1 Natural Resource Management Governance in the Lower Lakes and Coorong region ................................................................................................................ 8 4.2 South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural ResourceS Management Plan . 9 4.3 The Lower Lakes and Coorong recovery plan ..................................................10 4.4 The Living Murray - Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth Icon Site Plan .11 4.5 The National Park Management Plan...............................................................12 4.6 Coorong, Lakes Alexandrina And Albert Ramsar Management Plan................13 4.7 Ngarrindjeri Nation Sea Country Plan ..............................................................14 4.8 The Native Fish Strategy for the Murray-Darling Basin ....................................14 4.9 The Basin plan .................................................................................................15 DESCRIPTION OF FISHERY ..........................................................................16 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................16 5.2 Historical overview ...........................................................................................17 5.3 Commercial industry initiatives .........................................................................21 5.4 Recreational fishing .........................................................................................21 5.5 Aboriginal traditional fishing .............................................................................22 5.6 Biological and environmental characteristics ....................................................23 5.7 Biology of key species .....................................................................................27 5.8 Economic characteristics .................................................................................36 5.9 Employment .....................................................................................................48 5.10 Social characteristics .......................................................................................49 5.11 Social objectives ..............................................................................................50 CO-MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS .........................................................51 ALLOCATION OF ACCESS BETWEEN SECTORS .......................................52 7.1 Sectors of the Lakes and Coorong Fishery ......................................................53 7.2 Spatial scale of allocation .................................................................................54 7.3 Species allocated .............................................................................................55 7.4 Future allocations.............................................................................................55 7.5 Sector allocations of the resource ....................................................................56 7.6 Information used to allocate shares .................................................................60 7.7 Process for managing within existing shares ....................................................61 7.8 Review of allocations .......................................................................................62 7.9 Review process ...............................................................................................62 ECOSYSTEM IMPACTS .................................................................................68 OBJECTIVES, GOALS AND STRATEGIES ...................................................73 9.1 Goal 1 – Ensure the Lakes and Coorong Fishery resources are harvested within ecologically sustainable limits ..........................................................................73 9.2 Goal 2 – Optimum utilisation and equitable distribution of the Lakes and Coorong Fishery resources ............................................................................................73 9.3 Goal 3 – Minimise impacts on the ecosystem ..................................................74 9.4 Goal 4 – Cost effective and participative management of the fishery ...............74 Page 3 of 166 HARVEST STRATEGIES ................................................................................85 10.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................85 10.2 Pipi harvest strategy ........................................................................................85 10.3 Finfish harvest strategy ....................................................................................95 MISCELLANEOUS FISHERY PERMITS ....................................................... 104 11.1 Research ....................................................................................................... 104 11.2 Exploratory and developmental fishing ........................................................... 104 11.3 Broodstock and seedstock ............................................................................. 104 STOCK ASSESSMENT AND RESEARCH ................................................... 105 12.1 Research services ......................................................................................... 105 12.2 Data collection and analysis ........................................................................... 105 12.3 Reporting ....................................................................................................... 106 12.4 Strategic research plan .................................................................................. 107 COMPLIANCE AND MONITORING .............................................................. 109 13.1 Objectives ...................................................................................................... 109 13.2 Cost recovery ................................................................................................. 109 13.3 Planning ......................................................................................................... 109 13.4 Reporting ....................................................................................................... 110 REGULATORY ARRANGEMENTS ............................................................... 111 14.1 Licensing ....................................................................................................... 111 14.2 Management arrangements ........................................................................... 115 14.3 Commercial fishing methods .......................................................................... 117 14.4 Fish processing .............................................................................................. 121 REVIEW OF PLAN ........................................................................................ 122 RESOURCES REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT THE PLAN