DAFF is currently undertaking a review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch. The review is supported by an Advisory Committee comprising industry, departmental, research and eNGO representatives. Since the first bycatch policy was introduced in 2000, Commonwealth fisheries have been through significant change. This includes changing gear, bycatch mitigation measures, the Harvest Strategy Policy and fishery restructuring. ABARES have looked at TEPS interactions and some fisheries have reported annual bycatch statistics during some periods. However, there has been no overall synthesis and analysis of trends in bycatch since 2000 for Commonwealth fisheries.
Given the importance of this review, a detailed analysis is required to inform the review and provide a means of evaluating changes in bycatch over the last 10 years or so. Such an analysis should include bycatch rate, total bycatch by fishery and bycatch composition.
Final report
The purpose of this report is to inform the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch. In March 2012, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, announced the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, with the aim of improving the management of bycatch in Commonwealth fisheries. An important need of the review is an understanding of the data that have been collected, and whether these data provide an indication of the effectiveness of measures put in place to reduce bycatch. For each of the key Commonwealth fisheries, this report describes the bycatch arrangements and summarises the available data on bycatch species, and, where appropriate, the trends in bycatch or discards over time.
