❓ Mr. Watson questions the decision to require VMS on smaller fishing vessels in the southern demersal gillnet and demersal longline fishery. The Minister explains the decision was made by the Joint Authority to ensure sustainability, compliance, and export eligibility.
AnsweredQoN 3653Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
In regards to the vessel monitoring systems, can the Minister please explain the decision to require that fishing vessels under 6.9 metres in length operating in the southern demersal gillnet and demersal longline managed fishery be required to install approved VMS navigation equipment by 1 June 2010?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
7 September 2010
Responded by
Minister representing the Minister for Fisheries
Response time
28 days
The decision to require fishing vessels less than 6.9 metres to be fitted with VMS equipment in the fishery was made by the Western Australian Fisheries Joint Authority (which comprises the Federal Minister for Fisheries and myself as State Minister for Fisheries) following a re-examination of the relevant issues in early 2009.
The Joint Authority came to the view that exempting small boats from VMS requirements was no longer appropriate based on the following key reasons:
- the expense of purchasing VMS equipment had been incurred across the fishery and the majority of industry operators supported the implementation of VMS "across the board" without concessions to individual operators;
- no exceptions are provided for any vessels in the other State managed fisheries operating under VMS;
- VMS equipment has been successfully installed on other small vessels;
- the fishery targets a suite of shark, ray and demersal scalefish species that are known to be highly vulnerable to overfishing and are the subject of ongoing action to address sustainability concerns;
- the VMS is the key compliance monitoring tool for the effort control mechanism being used to implement management controls for sustainability and using other, less robust tools (such as manual reporting), would not provide the necessary technical standards and would be inconsistent with the rest of the fishery; and
- operation of a robust compliance regime across the fishery is integral to the fishery meeting its requirements under the Commonwealth
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
to continue to export product.
The 2009 Record of Decision extended VMS requirements to vessels less than 6.9 metres from 1 June 2010 (with vessels greater than 6.9 metres to be fitted with VMS equipment by 1 June 2009). The phased approach was aimed at providing small boat operators with an additional year with which to examine their options, which may have included changing boats, making provision to fit VMS equipment to the current "small" boat, or making the decision to lease their entitlement to a fisher using a larger, VMS-equipped vessel.
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The Joint Authority came to the view that exempting small boats from VMS requirements was no longer appropriate based on the following key reasons:
- the expense of purchasing VMS equipment had been incurred across the fishery and the majority of industry operators supported the implementation of VMS "across the board" without concessions to individual operators;
- no exceptions are provided for any vessels in the other State managed fisheries operating under VMS;
- VMS equipment has been successfully installed on other small vessels;
- the fishery targets a suite of shark, ray and demersal scalefish species that are known to be highly vulnerable to overfishing and are the subject of ongoing action to address sustainability concerns;
- the VMS is the key compliance monitoring tool for the effort control mechanism being used to implement management controls for sustainability and using other, less robust tools (such as manual reporting), would not provide the necessary technical standards and would be inconsistent with the rest of the fishery; and
- operation of a robust compliance regime across the fishery is integral to the fishery meeting its requirements under the Commonwealth
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
to continue to export product.
The 2009 Record of Decision extended VMS requirements to vessels less than 6.9 metres from 1 June 2010 (with vessels greater than 6.9 metres to be fitted with VMS equipment by 1 June 2009). The phased approach was aimed at providing small boat operators with an additional year with which to examine their options, which may have included changing boats, making provision to fit VMS equipment to the current "small" boat, or making the decision to lease their entitlement to a fisher using a larger, VMS-equipped vessel.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
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