Management Plan for the South Australian Commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery Part B - Management arrangements for the taking of sardines NOVEMBER 2014 MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COMMERCIAL MARINE SCALEFISH FISHERY PART B –MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE TAKING OF SARDINES Approved by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries pursuant to Section 44 of the Fisheries Management Act 2007. Hon Leon Bignell MP 1 November 2014 1 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 2014 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 68: Management plan for the South Australian Commercial Marine Scalefish Fishery, Part B– management arrangements for the taking of sardines ISBN 978-0-9924621-3-0 ISSN 1322-8072 Cover photo courtesy of the South Australian Sardine Industry Association Inc. 2 CONTENTS 1 FISHERY TO WHICH THIS PLAN APPLIES ....................................................................... 7 2 CONSISTENCY WITH OTHER MANAGEMENT PLANS ..................................................... 7 3 TERM OF PLAN ................................................................................................................... 7 4 DESCRIPTION OF CLASS OF FISHING ACTIVITY ............................................................ 8 4.1 Historical overview ....................................................................................................... 9 4.2 Target species ............................................................................................................ 11 4.3 Other species ............................................................................................................. 12 4.4 Threatened, endangered and protected (TEPS) species ........................................... 12 4.5 Ecosystem and habitat ............................................................................................... 14 4.6 Biology ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.7 Current biological status of Australian Sardines ......................................................... 16 4.8 Economic characteristics ............................................................................................ 16 4.9 Social characteristics .................................................................................................. 26 5 ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT................................ 28 6 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................... 30 7 CO-MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS ............................................................................ 40 8 ALLOCATION OF ACCESS BETWEEN SECTORS .......................................................... 41 8.1 Current allocated shares of the resource .................................................................... 41 8.2 Information for adjusting allocations of access in future ............................................. 42 8.3 Allocation triggers ....................................................................................................... 42 8.4 Review of allocations of access in future .................................................................... 42 9 HARVEST STRATEGY ...................................................................................................... 45 9.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 45 9.2 Objectives................................................................................................................... 45 9.3 Species ...................................................................................................................... 46 9.4 Assessment method ................................................................................................... 46 9.5 Previous strategies ..................................................................................................... 47 9.6 Reference points ........................................................................................................ 48 9.7 Spatial management .................................................................................................. 49 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 3 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 12 COMPLIANCE AND MONITORING ................................................................................... 60 12.1 Objectives................................................................................................................... 60 12.2 Planning ..................................................................................................................... 60 12.3 Compliance status report............................................................................................ 61 13 REGULATORY ARRANGEMENTS ................................................................................... 62 13.1 Licensing .................................................................................................................... 62 13.2 Current management arrangements .......................................................................... 64 13.3 Fish processing .......................................................................................................... 65 14 REVIEW OF PLAN ............................................................................................................. 66 15 RESOURCES REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT THE PLAN ................................................... 67 15.1 Cost-recovery overview .............................................................................................. 67 16 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................... 68 17 ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................................... 71 18 GLOSSARY OF COMMON FISHERIES MANAGEMENT TERMS .................................... 72 19 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................