The ecosystem and precautionary
approaches in Australian fisheries:
five case studies
Dr Jon Nevill
jonathan.nevill@gmail.com
School of Government, Utas
OnlyOnePlanet Consulting
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Summary
What are the precautionary and ecosystem approaches?
When did Australia commit to using them?
What are the key elements of these two approaches?
Five case studies – selection
Results
Comments and conclusions.
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Overview
At the level of national policy, Australia (and thus Australian fishery managers)
are committed to apply the precautionary and ecosystem approaches to the
management of both Commonwealth and State fisheries, including
recreational fisheries. This study lists the elements of each approach, and
examines their implementation in (a) the western rock lobster fishery, (b)
South Australia’s abalone fishery, (c) the south-east Australian orange roughy
fishery, (d) the CCAMLR Southern Ocean krill fishery, (e) the northern prawn
fishery, and two recreational fisheries. In spite of strong commitments on
paper, practical implementation of the core elements of these approaches in
day-to-day fisheries management has been slow or non-existent in some of
the fisheries studied here. These failings could be widespread in both
Australian and global fisheries. The CCAMLR krill fishery, managed under an
international convention, obtained the best scores in the comparison.
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The precautionary principle / approach
Many definitions of the precautionary principle exist.
A general definition:
Where there is the threat of serious or irreversible harm, lack
of scientific certainty should not deter action by decisionmakers to prevent or mitigate such harm.
Two key elements: (1) the existence of uncertainty, and (2) the
possibility of harm (Justice CJ Preston 2006).
The approach differs from the principle largely in regards to
consideration of social and economic effects – leading to differences
in timing and degree of management action.
Application to fisheries rests largely on work by the FAO.
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The ecosystem approach
Many definitions of ecosystem-based management exist.
According to Grumbine:
Ecosystem based management integrates scientific
knowledge of ecological relationships within a complex
socio-political and values framework toward the general goal
of protecting native ecosystem integrity over the long term
(Grumbine 1994:31).
Application to fisheries management rests on the work of many
fishery scientists, ecologists, and the work of the FAO.
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Ecosystem approach objectives
The issue of developing indicators and reference points from
explicit ecosystem objectives is discussed in a number of
papers. Gislason et al. (2000:471) suggest that ecosystem
objectives should include:

maintenance of ecosystem diversity;

maintenance of species diversity;

maintenance of genetic variability within species;

maintenance of directly impacted species;

maintenance of ecologically dependent species;

maintenance of trophic level balance.
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The case studies
• the krill fishery managed by the Commission for the
Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
(CCAMLR);
• the northern prawn trawl fishery managed by the
Commonwealth of Australia;
• the orange roughy fishery managed by the
Commonwealth of Australia;
• South Australian’s abalone fishery;
• Western Australia’s western rock lobster fishery;
• Tasmania’s gill-net recreational fishery, and
• Victoria’s recreational spearfishing fishery.
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When? – the precautionary principle
Australia committed itself to apply the precautionary
approach to natural resource management in 1982, and this
commitment was reinforced by Australia’s support for the
FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and later
the UN Fish Stocks Agreement 1995.
Commonwealth fisheries legislation was amended in 1997 – fifteen
years after the initial commitment – to require application of the
precautionary principle to Commonwealth fisheries.
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When? – the ecosystem approach
The National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s
Biological Diversity (Commonwealth of Australian 1996)
requires the implementation of the ecosystem approach,
including within fisheries management. All Australian
jurisdictions endorsed this Strategy.
The Implementation Plan of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development 2002 requested endorsing nations to implement the
ecosystem approach to fisheries management by 2010.
Australia’s Oceans Policy 1998 (Commonwealth of Australia 1998) did not
receive the same wide jurisdictional endorsement as the 1996 biodiversity
strategy, nevertheless it too requires the implementation of the ecosystem
approach to oceans management.
Significantly, both the Australian national biodiversity strategy and the
Australian oceans policy followed Australian endorsement of the FAO Code of
Conduct for Responsible Fisheries 1995, which promoted aspects of
ecosystem-based management.
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Benchmarking:
benchmark elements - precaution
Table 7.2 Benchmarks for the precautionary approach:
A1
Management strategies and plans contain clear objectives, indicators
and performance targets relating to the protection of: target stocks,
populations of dependent and associated species, and habitat.
A2
Fishery management plans use pre-agreed decision rules based partly
on limit reference points equivalent to, or more conservative than, both
target stock MSY and bycatch population MSY for the most vulnerable
species of bycatch.
A3
Undesirable outcomes which could result from excessive fishing
pressures are identified, and monitoring and reporting programs are in
place with sufficient power to rapidly detect these changes should they
occur.
A4
The risks to ecosystem health and integrity are assessed for each
major fishery, and additional caution applied to management programs
for high-risk fisheries
A5
Independent and transparent peer review is used as quality assurance
for major management policies, strategies and plans.
A6
Management procedures provide for rapid response in the light of
unexpected declines in target stocks, bycatch populations, or habitat
value. Such provisions provide for fisher compensation where
necessary.
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Benchmarking:
benchmark elements – the ecosystem approach
Table 8.4 Benchmarks for the ecosystem approach:
B1
There is formal periodic assessment of the impacts of particular
fisheries against agreed objectives, including ecosystem-based
objectives.
B2
There is monitoring and reporting of agreed ecosystem indicators
based on stated ecosystem objectives.
B3
There is a substantial program in mapping, protecting and monitoring
critical and vulnerable habitats, funded by the fishery agency or
responsible government.
B4
There are effective programs in place to monitor and maintain oldgrowth age structure in specific fisheries.
B5
The agency has a substantial program to account for evolutionary
change caused by fishing.
B6
There are effective programs in place to maintain the spatial extent of
all major sub-populations (both target and bycatch) affected by
specific fisheries, and maintain and monitor population genetic
diversity.
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Benchmarking:
CCAMLR’s krill fishery
CCAMLR krill fishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Benchmarking:
the northern prawn trawl fishery
Northern Prawn Trawl Fishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Benchmarking:
Australia’s orange roughy fishery
Australia's orange roughy fishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Benchmarking:
South Australia’s abalone fishery
South Australian abalone fishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Benchmarking:
WA’s western rock lobster fishery
WA western rock lobster fishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Benchmarking:
Victoria’s recreational spear fishery
Victoria's recreational spearfishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Benchmarking:
Tasmania’s recreational gillnet fishery
Tasmania's recreational gillnet fishery
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 6
Benchmark 2
Benchmark 5
Benchmark 3
Precaution
Benchmark 4
EBFM
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Fisheries management failures:
why?
Generally speaking, in the case studies I examined, with the
exception of the krill fishery and the western rock lobster fishery,
management commitments to the precautionary and ecosystem
approaches have every appearance of lip service.
If these failures are widespread within Commonwealth and
State fisheries, there are major implications for the long-term
health of Australia’s marine ecosystems – which support many
important economic, cultural and natural values.
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Application of the precautionary principle
AFMA (2002:184) in discussing setting orange roughy total
allowable catch limits, state that:
..“current TACs for the southern and eastern sectors are
considered precautionary using the best available
scientific advice and have a good chance of meeting the
recovery strategy.”
The TACs referred to were 1600 tonne for the eastern stock
and 420 tonne for the southern stock.
The CSIRO stock assessment (Wayte & Bax 2002) which
had been commissioned by AFMA, had recommended a
total allowable catch of zero for the eastern stock and zero
for the southern stock. The stock assessment report had
also pointed out that there was absolutely no chance of
either stock meeting the recovery strategy.
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Application of the precautionary principle
..“current TACs for the southern and eastern sectors are
considered precautionary using the best available
scientific advice and have a good chance of meeting the
recovery strategy.”
How could you explain this statement? - dishonesty?
incompetence?
What does it say about AFMA’s regard for the precautionary
principle?
False and misleading...
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Application of the precautionary principle
Annex II of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA)
provides guidelines on the application of the precautionary
approach.
According to the Annex, Bmsy should be used as a limit
reference point not a target reference point.
At the South Tasman Rise, AFMA initially used 20%Bo as a
limit reference point – in violation of responsibilities under
the UNFSA. When this limit point was breached, AFMA
abandoned the reference point, and allowed fishing to
continue.
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Fisheries management failures:
why?
In my view these failures should not be unexpected from
organizational cultures focussed on fishing (rather than on the
protection of marine ecosystems and the services which they
provide).
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The future for fisheries
The coming decades may see changes in line with Earle
& Laffoley’s (2006) who argued that “we must place
biodiversity conservation at the center of ocean
governance”.
The work of Pitcher & Pauly (1998) and Pitcher (2001)
support this call in arguing that the proper goal for
fisheries management should not be catch optimisation or
sustainable harvests, but ecosystem rebuilding.
Mangel & Levin (2005) recommend that community
ecology should be the basic science for fisheries.
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The future for fisheries
Pikitch et al. (2004) recommend that “the framework of
fishery management must be broadened to include
environmental effects, food web interactions and the
impacts of fishing on ecosystems”.
Worm et al. (2007) emphasize “that the protection and
restoration of biodiversity must be a cornerstone of any
rational management regime.”
Walker & Salt (2006) argue that protecting ecosystem
resilience must be the primary goal of all natural resource
management.
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The future for fisheries
Fisheries management agencies need to be replaced with
asset management agencies, focused on the protection of
marine biodiversity assets – and the maintenance of the
ecosystem services which they produce
– not least of which, of course, is the production of food.
Acknowledgements:
University of Tasmania (funding) and
A/Prof Marcus Haward (PhD
supervisor), plus many others…
Powerpoint and transcript available at onlyoneplanet.com.au
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