8950 Martin Luther King Jr. Street North, Suite 202 St. Petersburg, FL 33702 USA Tel: (727) 563-9070 Fax: (727) 563-0207 Email: [email protected] President: Andrew A. Rosenberg, Ph.D. South Australian Sardine Fishery South Australian Sardine (Sardinops Sagax) Purse seine MSC Fishery Assessment Public Certification Report Prepared for South Australian Sardine Industry Association Inc Port Lincoln, SA, 5606, PO BOX 2909, Australia MRAG Americas, Inc. October 16th, 2018 Authors: Richard Banks, Mihaela Zaharia and Cameron Dixon MRAG Americas-SASIA South Australia Sardine Public Certification Report 1 Project Code: US2299_S01 Issue ref: Public Certification Report Date of issue: 7 November 2018 Prepared by: R.Banks, C.Dixon, M. Zaharia Checked/Approved by: ASP MRAG Americas-SASIA South Australia Sardine Public Certification Report 2 Table of Contents 1 Contents Table of Contents ...............................................................................................................................3 Glossary .............................................................................................................................................5 2 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................6 3 Authorship and Peer Reviewers .................................................................................................9 4 Description of the Fishery ........................................................................................................11 4.1 Unit(s) of Assessment (UoA) and Scope of Certification Sought ....................................11 4.1.1 UoA and Proposed Unit of Certification ...................................................................11 4.1.2 Final Unit of Certification ..........................................................................................11 4.1.3 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and Catch Data ..........................................................11 4.1.4 Scope of Assessment in Relation to Enhanced Fisheries ...........................................15 4.1.5 Scope of the fishery in relation to Introduced Species Based Fisheries ....................15 4.2 Overview of the fishery .....................................................................................................15 4.3 Principle One: Target Species Background ......................................................................19 4.3.1 Assessment of sardine against key Low-Trophic Level species criteria ...................19 4.3.2 Biology and life history .............................................................................................21 4.3.3 Estimates of biomass from the Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM) ...................22 4.3.4 Stock assessment modelling ......................................................................................24 4.3.5 Reference Points and assessment of stock status .......................................................27 4.3.6 Harvest strategy and Harvest Control Rules ..............................................................28 4.3.7 Sustainability of sardine harvest in an ecosystem context .........................................29 4.4 Principle Two: Ecosystem Background ............................................................................30 4.4.1 Primary Species .........................................................................................................31 4.4.2 Secondary Species .....................................................................................................35 4.4.3 Endangered Threatened and Protected Species (ETPs) .............................................37 4.4.4 Habitat ........................................................................................................................67 4.4.5 Ecosystem ..................................................................................................................74 4.5 Principle Three: Management System Background ..........................................................77 3.5.5 Decision making processes ........................................................................................86 3.5.6 Compliance ................................................................................................................87 5 Evaluation Procedure ................................................................................................................93 5.1 Harmonised Fishery Assessment ......................................................................................93 5.2 Previous assessments .........................................................................................................93 5.3 Assessment Methodologies ...............................................................................................93 5.4 Evaluation Processes and Techniques ...............................................................................93 5.4.1 Site Visits and persons met ........................................................................................93 5.4.2 Additional Consultations by telephone ......................................................................94 MRAG Americas-SASIA South Australia Sardine Public Certification Report 3 5.4.3 Evaluation Techniques ...............................................................................................94 6 Traceability ...............................................................................................................................96 6.1 Eligibility Date ..................................................................................................................96 6.2 Traceability within the Fishery .........................................................................................96 6.3 Eligibility to Enter Further Chains of Custody .................................................................98 6.4 Eligibility of Inseparable or Practicably Inseparable (IPI) stock(s) to Enter Further Chains of Custody ........................................................................................................................99 6.4.1 Proposed variation .....................................................................................................99 6.4.2 Rationale/Justification................................................................................................99 6.4.3 Stakeholder consultation ............................................................................................99 6.4.4 Inseparable or practically inseparable (IPI) catches ................................................100 6.4.5 Request to allow an exemption to detailed requirements for IPI stocks ..................102 7 Evaluation Results ..................................................................................................................103 7.1 Principle Level Scores .....................................................................................................103 7.2 Summary of PI Level Scores ...........................................................................................103 7.3 Summary of Conditions ..................................................................................................104 7.4 Recommendations ...........................................................................................................104 7.5 Determination, Formal Conclusion and Agreement .......................................................104 7.6 Changes in the fishery prior to and since Pre-Assessment ..............................................104 References ......................................................................................................................................105 Appendices .....................................................................................................................................116 Appendix 1 Scoring and Rationales ...............................................................................................116 Performance Indicator Scores and Rationale .............................................................................116 Appendix 1.3 Conditions............................................................................................................212 Appendix 2 Peer Review Reports ..................................................................................................213 Appendix 3 Stakeholder submissions and Interviews ...................................................................232 3.1 Client Report stage ...................................................................................................................232 3.2 Public Comment stage .............................................................................................................238 Appendix 4 Surveillance Frequency ..............................................................................................251 Appendix 5 Objections Process .....................................................................................................252 MRAG Americas-SASIA South Australia Sardine Public Certification Report 4 Glossary AFZ Australian Fishing Zone BMSY Biomass at Maximum Sustainable Yield CCSA Conservation Council for South Australia CDR Catch and Disposal Record CEBEL Cetacean Ecology Behaviour and Evolution Lab (Flinders University) CoA Commonwealth of Australia CoP Code of Practice CPUE Catch Per Unit Effort DEE Commonwealth Department