Review of the Victorian Abalone Fishery Management Plan

Desktop review completed in 2004. The review identified that fishing for abalone is relatively benign.

Ecological indicators are still being developed.

Ecological indices have been developed for Aquaculture Fisheries Reserves (AFRs).

Compliance indicators have been established and monitored for the recreational and commercial wild sector.

Robust compliance indicators for illegal and unreported catches are problematic and have not been developed.

A three year FRDC project to study a number of ecological issues commenced in July 2006.

In the future, ecological indicators and reference points should be considered for abalone aquaculture outside of AFRs.

Indices for the level of compliance with reef code reporting should be considered in future management arrangements.

Robust compliance indicators need to be developed, using learnings of the National IUU project if available.

Biomass triggers have not been triggered during the life of the management plan.

Catch triggers that have been activated were referred to AFC for advice.

Careful redefinition of the biomass trigger is required in the next management plan to avoid statistical errors that occur in their calculation.

Further improvement could be achieved by aligning catch triggers with the reef-scale catch reference points established and agreed to annually and ensuring these reference points are functionally monitored in an accurate and timely manner against output from FILS displayed on Divers Web.

The Abalone FAG was given formal status by the then Marine and Freshwater Resources Institute (now PIRVic) in 2002

The Abalone Fishery Committee (formerly the Commercial Abalone Fishery Committee) was renamed in November 2002, and its representation expanded to include recreational fishing and research.

DPI has reported against ecological, economic, social and governance dimensions on an annual basis and has provided this information to the AFC. Reports have been of limited use to date, largely because of a lack of social, economic and governance information.

The AFC schedules one of its quarterly meetings to consider a range of fisheries management issues and provide advice to the Minister on the TAC for the forthcoming fishing year.

Gaining accurate economic and social information from the industry has proved problematic. The phased introduction of cost recovery and Fisheries Activity Costing Systems (FACS) data is expected to help fill information gaps in the future.

Ongoing collection of economic and social data could better inform performance monitoring of the economic and social dimension.

Legislation was amended in 2005 and now defines blacklip and greenlip abalone as separate species for the purposes of the Act. This allows for individual TACs to be set.

In September 2006, a conservative TAC of 3.2 tonne was set for greenlip abalone in the western zone following an industry funded survey in 2005.

Draft regulations have not been required as Legal Minimum Lengths (LMLs) are set at a zonal level.

Industry has led the preparation and implementation of a Codes of Conduct that sets industry’s expectations of the sizes at which abalone should be harvested for individual reefs.

Information collected on the processing sector indicated that the financial and economic performance was modest at best.

The Abalone Council of Australia commissioned a study that made a number of recommendations that related to the processing sector, including the need for a product quality and integrity scheme.

A comprehensive environmental monitoring framework has been developed for all AFRs.

For land-based abalone farms, the EPA specifies environmental monitoring requirements and maximum nutrient loads in EPA discharge licences.

Support the FRDC application, “Illegal Unidentified & Unreported (IUU) Abalone Catch Estimation Strategies”.

Opportunities to expand the FRDC project to include other state jurisdictions should be investigated with the intention of developing a larger nationally consistent approach to catch estimation of IUU.

Outcomes of the project should inform efforts in estimating IUU.

An Abalone Fishery Compliance Strategy was prepared and finalised for 2002/03 by a working group that included the DPI and industry stakeholders.

Annual reviews and updates of the strategy’s’ performance targets did not occur in subsequent years.

A specific cost benefit analysis has not been completed due to a lack of quantitative information on compliance levels within the illegal sector.

A national research project is currently being developed by the Australian Fisheries Management Forum to benchmark compliance activities across state jurisdictions. This information is likely to provide insights into the levels of compliance efforts and their economic efficiency.

Provision of immunity for undercover operations was introduced by amendments to the Fisheries Act in 2003. Legislative innovation to improve officer effectiveness Provision of immunity for undercover operations and confiscation of assets for repeat offenders and undercover operations. Complete

In 2000, new legislation for Asset Forfeiture and Criminal Proceeds was introduced. This provides for the seizure and forfeiture of assets used in criminal activities or purchased with proceeds of criminal activity.

Since 2002 there have been three key developments that have improved the level of reporting (and tracking of responses) to illegal activities:

• The DPI Register for Informers provides a mechanism by which the community, including industry, can make reports about suspected illegal activities while maintaining anonymity. There have been no reports made to the Register since it was introduced in 2002.
• The Interactive Voice Recognition system provides a system where industry divers can enter information on suspected illegal fishing activities. Since it was introduced there have been only two reports lodged.
• The 13 FISH (13 3474) reporting number provides a means for the community to report suspected illegal fishing activities. Since the system was introduced in 2003 there were 5248 calls received to December 2006 resulting in 71 prosecutions being initiated, 322 Infringement Notices issued and 721 intelligence reports recorded.

Awareness has been raised with sections of the community with a number of different approaches, including:

• Multi-lingual abalone cards explaining the fisheries regulations for abalone were distributed by Fisheries Officers.
• New abalone fishing regulations were advertised in a number of non-English newspapers.
• Presentations to the South Pacific Foundation to increase understanding of current abalone fishing regulations within the Polynesian community.
• School visits by Fisheries Officers to increase understanding of abalone regulations and other fisheries issues.

In 2000, Victoria introduced mandatory labelling for all processed abalone. Mandatory labelling was introduced by NSW and TAS in 2005.

All states, with the exception of WA and NT, have made legislative changes that require a docketing system to be in place that enables abalone to be tracked from the place of landing to the place of consumption.

The AbFAG has had some input to research strategies and priorities related to improving the quality of assessments and addressing knowledge gaps identified through the assessment process.

Assessment findings are reported to AFC, DPI & SIV (AbCom member committees).

The FCC Research Committee has been removed under the revised FCC structure.

A new framework to better coordinate and prioritise R&D investment across all fisheries has been developed. This framework includes the establishment of a government and stakeholder R&D Reference Group that will assess and prioritise research projects.

The AbFAG has met annually and discussed research priorities at some of its meetings.

The FCC Research committee have met annually to discuss research proposals. The FCC Research Committee has been removed under the revised FCC structure.