Assessment of the
Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery
February 2017
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Assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting)Fishery 2017is licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia for use under a Creative Commons By Attribution 3.0 Australia licence with the exception of the Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia, the logo of the agency responsible for publishing the report, content supplied by third parties, and any images depicting people. For licence conditions see:
This report should be attributed as ‘Assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting)Fishery February 2017, Commonwealth of Australia 2017’.
Disclaimer
This document is an assessment carried out by the Department of the Environmentand Energy of a commercial fishery against the Australian Government Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries – 2nd Edition. It forms part of the advice provided to the Delegate of the Minister for the Environment and Energy on the fishery in relation to decisions under Parts13 and13A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Minister for the Environment and Energy or the Australian Government.
While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the contents of this report are factually correct, the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this report. You should not rely solely on the information presented in the report when making a commercial or other decision.
Contents
Executive Summary:...... 4
This section is a summary of the Department’s assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery’sperformance against the AustralianGovernment’s Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries – 2nd Edition and outlines the reasons the Department recommends that the fishery be declared an approved wildlife trade operation.
Table 1:Summary of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery.4
Table 1 contains a brief overview of the operation of the fishery, including: the gear used, species targeted, byproduct species, bycatch species, annual catch, management regime and ecosystem impacts.
Table 2:Progress in implementation of conditions and recommendations made in the 2011 assessment of theQueensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery 4
Table 2 contains an update on the progress that has been made by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in implementing the conditions and recommendations made in the 2011 assessment.
Table 3a:The Department of the Environment and Energy’s assessment of theQueensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery against the Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries – 2nd Edition 15
Table 3a contains the Department’s assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery management arrangements, against all the relevant parts of the Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries - 2nd Edition.
Table 3b: The Department of the Environment and Energy’s assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fisheryagainst the requirements of the EPBCAct related to decisions made under Part13 and Part13A. 4
Table3 contains the Department’s assessment of the fishery’s management arrangements against all the relevant parts of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 that the delegatemust consider before making a decision.
Table 4:The Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl FisheryAssessment – Summary of Issues and Conditions, Feburary 2017 4
Table 4 contains a description of the issues identified by the Department with the current management regime for the fishery and outlines the proposed conditionsthat would form part of the delegate’s decision to declare the fishery an approved wildlife trade operation.
References...... 4
Executive Summary of the assessment of the Queensland Finfish(STOUT WHITING) TRAWL Fishery (the Fishery)
The material submitted by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) demonstrates that the management arrangements for the Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery continue to meet most of the requirements of the Australian Government ‘Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries - 2ndEdition’.
Stock Status
The Department considers that overall the management regime for the fishery aims to ensure that fishing is conducted in a manner that does not lead to overfishing. QDAF provides input into the Australian Government Fisheries Research and Development Corporation’s Status of Australian Fish Stocks (SAFS) process on a biennial basis. The SAFS reports and QDAF’s stock status assessment program do not consider any key target or byproduct species taken in the fishery to be overfished. Ongoing input by QDAF into the SAFS reports provides a means to identify some species at risk of overfishing, and reduce the level of uncertainty in the stock status of key species.
Management measures in place in the fishery include:
- limited entry
- gear restrictions
- size limits
- total allowable catch for quota species and some byproduct species
- in possession limits for other byproduct species
- limits on the species that can be retained, and
- turtle excluder devices.
Ecosystem Impacts
Taking into account the management measures described above, the Department considers that the management regime for the fishery provides for fishing operations to be managed to minimise their impact on the structure, productivity, function and biological diversity of the ecosystem.
While the fishery is relatively well managed, the Department has identified some risks and uncertainties that must be managed to ensure that impacts are minimised, including:
- the development of a robust ecological risk assessment (ERA), and
- a need for ongoing collection and validation of data on target, bycatch and byproduct species.
The Department considers that, until it can be demonstrated that these issues have been adequately addressed, declaration of the harvest operations of the fishery as an approved wildlife trade operation for three years, until 14February2020, is appropriate. The Department considers that the declaration should be subject to the conditions listed in Table 4.
Unless a specific time frame is provided, each condition must be addressed within the period of the approved wildlife trade operation declaration for the fishery.
Table 1: Summary of the queEnsland Finfish (Stout whiting) Trawl Fishery
Key documents relevant to the fishery /- Queensland Fisheries Act 1994
- Queensland Fisheries Regulation 2008
- Queensland Fisheries (East Coast Trawl) Management Plan 2010
- Submission for the reassessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Fishery Wildlife Trade Operation approval 2015 -Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
- Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting Trawl Fishery, Statement of Management Arrangements, October 2013)
- Marine bioregional plan for the Temperate East Marine Region 2012
- Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities - Assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery, August 2011
- Ecological Assessment of the Queensland Finfish(Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery, December 2003 - Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
Area / / The Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery (the fishery)operates in Queensland and Commonwealth waters between the 36 and 90 metre (m) depth contours off southern Queensland (from Sandy Cape south to the New South Wales (NSW) border) (Figure 1).
Figure 1.Map of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery (Source:QDAF- Fishery Symbols[1])
Target Species / The main target species is stout whiting (Sillagorobusta) however, small amounts (approximately 1 per cent) of red spot whiting (Sillago flindersi) are also harvested in the fishery.
Fishery status / The stock status for both stout whiting and red spot whiting are considered to be sustainably fished (Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, 2016)
Byproduct Species / Licence holders are required to hold a General Fisheries Permit to retain a specified amount of permitted byproduct species. Individualspecies limits are reviewed annually and the limits are included as conditions of the General Fisheries Permits.
Permitted byproduct species include:
Finfish
Yellowtail scad (Trachurus novaezelandiae)
Goatfish (Family Mullidae)
Pinkies (Family Nemipteridae)
Crustaceans
Balmain bugs (Ibacus spp.)
Moreton Bay bugs (Thenus spp.)
Molluscs
Cuttlefish (Sepia spp.)
Squid (Nototodarus spp., Photololigo spp. and Sepioteuthis spp.)
Octopus (Octopus sp.)
Gear / Otter trawling with a single multi-filament otter trawl net is the permitted fishing method.Gear restrictions include:
- a maximum total net length (combined head rope, bottom rope and all other rope attached to the net) of 88m
- maximum sweep length of 128meach
- minimum mesh size of38 millimetres (mm)
- maximum vessel length of 20m
- turtle excluder devices on all otter trawl nets
Season / The fishery is open to fishing year round however, for management purposes the fishing season is from 1 January to 31December of each year.
Commercial harvest 2015 / The total harvest for the fishery in 2015 was 786 tonnes (t) which comprised of 783 t of Stout Whiting and 3 t of byproduct species (cuttlefish, octopus, squid, Moreton Bay bug, threadfin bream, Balmain bug and yellowtail scad).
Take by other sectors / Stout Whiting forms part of the catch in the NSW Ocean Trap and Line Fishery which accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the total catch of stout whiting on the east coast of Australia. Small amounts of stout whiting are also taken as byproduct in the NSW Ocean Prawn Trawl Fishery. QDAF advises that 80 percent of national stout whiting harvest occurs along the Queensland coast.
Commercial licences issued / The total number of licences in the fishery is five. The total number of active licences in 2015 was two.
Management arrangements / The following management arrangements are in place for the fishery:
- 270,000 Individually Transferrable Quota (ITQ) units issued for each commercial stout whiting fishing symbol (T4) held (1,350,000 units in total)
- a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for stout whiting is set annually via declaration by the Chief Executive
- 20 t non-transferable annual catch quotas for each of the main permitted byproduct species, i.e. yellowtail scad and goatfish
- in-possession limits for other permitted byproduct species (260 kg for cuttlefish, squid and threadfin bream and 100 kg for octopus)
- stout whiting fishers are required to provide prior and unload notices to Fisheries Queensland at completion of each fishing trip via the Automated Integrated Voice Response (AIVR) system. The AIVR system is used both for quota monitoring and for compliance checks
- stout whiting fishers are authorised to attach multiple T4 symbols to an individual commercial fishing boat licence to acquire additional ITQ units
- mandatory use of bycatch reduction devices
- mandatory Vessel Monitoring System
Export / The majority of catch is exported to Thailand, China, Vietnam, Japan and Taiwan.
Bycatch / In 2010, the fishery reported approximately 105 t of bycatch that was discarded. Since 2010, fishers are no longer required to report discarded bycatch and the fisheries observer program ceased in 2012.
Bycatch consists mainly of finfish other than target species, juvenile stout whiting, sharks, crabs, cephalopods (squid, octopus and/or cuttlefish), and pipefish. The total amount of bycatch is variable due to changes in reporting requirements, trip limits, market prices and the natural variation in abundance of bycatch species within the fishery area. Based on recent annual status reports for the fishery, bycatch primarily consists of Nemipterus spp. (pinkies or threadfin bream).
Turtle excluder devices (TEDs) have been mandatory for use in all otter trawl gear in the fishery since 2006. Since this time, no interactions with marine turtles have been recorded and there has been a substantial decrease in the recorded capture of large organisms.
Interaction with Protected Species[2] / Interactions with protected species are required to be reported in logbooks by fishers and submitted to QDAF within a month of the cessation of fishing trips. Protected species that are known to inhabit the area ofthe fishery includewhite sharks, grey nurse sharks, seabirds, turtles, sea snakes, syngnathids, dugong, and dolphins. Of these species, all marine turtles, grey nurse sharks and white sharks are also listed as threatened species.
While only a low level of interactions with EPBC Act protected species has been reported historically, there are concerns that interactions may be under-reported, based on interaction rates in similar fisheries in other jurisdictions. There have been no interactions reported to the Department since the most recent assessment in 2011.
TEDs are mandatory for otter board trawling in the fishery however, they are not required on the Danish seine gear, which poses a lower risk to marine turtles.
The marine bioregional plan for the Temperate East Marine Region identifies overlaps withbiologically important areas (BIAs) for white sharks and the fishery. There have been no reported interactions with white sharks since the last assessment in 2011.
The area of the fishery overlaps with the area of distribution (and known aggregation sites) of grey nurse sharks. Since 2003, fishing has been banned around all known aggregation sites and reports from four observer trips between 2006 and 2007 showed no interactions had occurred. There has also been no reported interactions with grey nurse sharks in fisher logbooks since 2011.
While it is unlikely that this fishery is having an impact on the populations or conservation status of EPBC Act protected species, an ecological risk assessment (ERA) that determines the risk to protected species should be completed. To address this concern, a condition that requires QDAF to conduct an ERA is recommended at Table 4.
Ecosystem Impacts / Trawling activity in this fishery is heavily focused on areas of soft substrate (sand and silt) which contain minimal large sessile benthic organisms. As a result of gear restrictions and operators purposefully avoiding areas of hard substrate where higher biodiversity is found, it is unlikely that the operation of the fishery is having a significant impact on sea floor communities.
The Marine bioregional plan for the Temperate East Marine Region2012 has identified that there are four key ecological features present in the area of the fishery. These are shelf rocky reefs, the canyons on the eastern continental slope, the Tasmantid seamount chain and the upwelling off Fraser Island. However, due to trawling occurring over soft substrate, impacts to the physical ecosystem such as the canyons, rocky reefs and the Tasmantid seamount chain are likely to be low.
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Table 2: Progress in implementation of conditions and recommendations made in previous assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery
Condition / Progress / Recommended Action- Operation of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery (the fishery) will be carried out in accordance with the management regime for the fishery in force under the Queensland Fisheries Act 1994 and the Queensland Fisheries Regulation 2008.
The Department considers that a new approved wildlife trade operation declaration for the fishery specify a similar condition (see Condition 1, Table 4).
2. Condition 2: Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) to inform the Department of the Environment of any intended amendments to the fishery’s management arrangements that may affect the assessment of the fishery against the criteria on which Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 decisions are based. / On 19 Dec 2014 QDAF wrote to the Department advising that in accordance with the condition of the fishery’s Wildlife Trade Operation approval, amendments to the Fisheries Regulation 2008 had been made which formalisedIndividually Transferrable Quota’s (ITQs), and certain other management arrangements that were previously conditions of licences or permits.
These changes to management took effect on 1 January 2015. Details can be found at the Queensland Government internet site / The Department considers that this condition has been met.
The Department considers that a new approved wildlife trade operation declaration for the fishery specify a similar condition (see Condition 2, Table 4).
3.QDAF to produce and present reports to the Department of the Environment annually as per Appendix B to the Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries – 2nd Edition. / QDAF has provided annual reports for the fishery to the Department each year since2011. Summaries of the reports have been made publicly available via the QDAF Queensland Fisheries Summary Report. / The Department considers that this condition has beenmet.
The Department considers that a new approved wildlife trade operation declaration for the fishery specify a similar condition (see Condition 3, Table 4).
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Recommendation / Progress / Recommended Action1. QDAF to complete the review of future management directions for the Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery and ensure that appropriate measures to ensure sustainability of bycatch species are implemented. / QDAF has commenced a review into the sustainability of bycatch species in the fishery. The publications ‘Estimating the Impacts of Management Changes on Bycatch Reduction and Sustainability of High-Risk bycatch species in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery’ and ‘An Ecological Risk Assessment of the East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery in Southern Queensland Including the River and Inshore Beam Trawl Fishery’ give some consideration of impacts to bycatch in other trawl fisheries in Queensland that may be used to infer similar risks in this fishery. / The Department considers the issues covered by this recommendation to be partially met and ongoing.
The Department considers that a new approved wildlife trade operation declaration for the fishery specify a similar condition (see Conditions 4 and 5, Table 4).
2. QDAF to complete the review of future management directions for the fishery and develop and implement appropriate performance measures related to the minimisation of bycatch of species determined to be at risk of adverse impacts from fishing. / QDAF has advised that is awaiting further direction after it released the Green Paper into Fisheries Management in Queensland in 2016. Until this direction is given, QDAF is unable to implement further performance measures. / The Department considers the issues covered by this recommendation to not be met.
The Department considers that the completion of Condition 4, Table 4 will aid QDAF in developing appropriate performance measures.
Table 3: Assessment of the Queensland Finfish (Stout Whiting) Trawl Fishery against the Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries (2nd edition)