MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL SARDINE FISHERY Approved by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries pursuant to section 44 of the Fisheries Management Act 2007. Hon Gail Gago MLC 2013 Page 1 of 86 PIRSA Fisheries & 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 2013 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. 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The South Australian Fisheries Management Series Paper number xx: Management Plan for the South Australian Commercial Sardine Fishery ISBN 978-0-9807387-x-x ISSN 1322-8072 Page 2 of 86 CONTENTS 1 FISHERY TO WHICH THIS PLAN APPLIES ....................................................... 7 2 CONSISTENCY WITH OTHER MANAGEMENT PLANS ..................................... 7 3 TERM OF PLAN ................................................................................................... 7 4 DESCRIPTION OF FISHERY ............................................................................... 7 4.1 Historical overview ........................................................................................ 8 4.1 Target species .............................................................................................11 4.2 Other Species ..............................................................................................11 4.3 Threatened, Endangered and Protected (TEPS) Species ............................12 4.4 Ecosystem and habitat .................................................................................13 4.5 Biology .........................................................................................................14 4.6 Current biological status of Australian Sardines ...........................................15 4.7 Economic characteristics .............................................................................17 4.8 Social characteristics ...................................................................................27 5 ECOLLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT ...............28 6 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................30 7 CO-MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS .............................................................40 8 ALLOCATION OF ACCESS BETWEEN SECTORS ...........................................42 8.1 Current allocated shares of the resource .....................................................42 8.2 Information for adjusting allocations of access in future ...............................42 8.3 Allocation triggers ........................................................................................43 8.4 Review of allocations of access in future ......................................................43 9 HARVEST STRATEGY .......................................................................................46 9.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................46 9.2 Objectives and framework ............................................................................46 9.3 Species ........................................................................................................47 9.4 Assessment method ....................................................................................47 9.5 Previous strategies ......................................................................................48 9.6 Reference points ..........................................................................................49 9.7 Spatial management ....................................................................................50 9.8 Monitoring ....................................................................................................50 9.9 Decision Rules .............................................................................................52 9.10 Meta-rules ....................................................................................................54 9.11 Decision-making process .............................................................................55 9.12 Examples .....................................................................................................55 9.13 Review .........................................................................................................56 10 OTHER FISHING ................................................................................................57 10.1 Marine Scalefish Fishing ..............................................................................57 10.2 Recreational fishing sector ...........................................................................57 10.3 Aboriginal traditional fishing sector ...............................................................57 10.4 Exploratory and developmental fishing.........................................................57 11 STOCK ASSESSMENT AND RESEARCH .........................................................58 11.1 Research services .......................................................................................58 11.2 Data collection and analysis .........................................................................58 11.3 Strategic research plan ................................................................................59 Page 3 of 86 12 COMPLIANCE AND MONITORING ................................................................... 60 12.1 Objectives ................................................................................................... 60 12.2 Cost-recovery ............................................................................................. 60 12.3 Planning ...................................................................................................... 60 12.4 Compliance status report ............................................................................ 61 13 REGULATORY ARRANGEMENTS ................................................................... 62 13.1 Licensing..................................................................................................... 62 13.2 Current management arrangements ........................................................... 63 13.3 Fish processing ........................................................................................... 65 14 REVIEW OF PLAN ............................................................................................. 65 15 RESOURCES REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT THE PLAN ................................... 67 15.1 Cost-recovery overview ............................................................................... 67 16 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 68 ACRONYMS .............................................................................................................. 71 17 GLOSSARY OF COMMON FISHERIES MANAGEMENT TERMS .................... 73 18 APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 76 18.1 Risk assessment for the sardine fishery ...................................................... 76 18.2 Overview of the risk assessment ................................................................. 83 Page 4 of 86 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 - A chronology of major management milestones in the South Australian Sardine Fishery since 1991. 10 Table 2 - Catch and gross value of production of the South Australian Sardine Fishery, 1990-91 to 2010-11 18 Table 3 - Economic rent in the sardine fishery, 2001-02 to 2010-11 ($’000). 24 Table 4 - The economic impact of the sardine fishery in South Australia, 2010-11 26 Table 5 - Risk assessment of ecological components of fishery. 29 Table 6 - Goals, objectives, strategies for the management of the sardine fishery. 32 Table 7 - Shares of sardine fishery allocated to each fishing sector. 42 Table 8 - Descriptions for the stock status categories used in the sardine harvest strategy. 49 Table 9 - Harvest decision table for the sardine harvest strategy to guide levels of exploitation (and TACC) and frequency of surveys and assessment for each tier following the most recent