Sydney Fish Market, along with the many wholesalers and cooperatives that trade in Australian seafood, is constantly having its product supply eroded due to increasing restrictions on commercial fishing operations. Over the last 10 years the introduction of recreational fishing havens and State and
Commonwealth marine parks, such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, has resulted in access to Australian wild caught seafood being constantly under threat. There is a strong belief that this is due to a popular perception that fisheries are not being sustainably managed and therefore require additional
protection.
With the environmental and fisheries management controls in place through the EPBC Act and Commonwealth and State fisheries management legislation, the industry view is that fisheries are well managed and sustainable.
Environmental NGOs’ public campaigns are causing considerable pressure for change in Australia. This has led to extensive negative media coverage about the industry and consequently increased the risk of further closures to fisheries through the erosion of community and political support. This
negative media is also putting businesses along the supply chain like SFM, on the defensive regarding sustainability of the seafood that they sell.
Final report
The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and FAO Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries represent internationally negotiated documents that represent consensus on the criteria for responsibly managed fisheries. These ‘tools’ form the basis of a number of private standards that are used for the certification of fisheries; including Marine Stewardship Council, Alaska FAO Based Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) Certification and Iceland Responsible Fisheries Management Certification.
This project investigated the feasibility of an FAO Based RFM Certification for Australia by testing on two NSW fisheries using the Conformance Criteria Version 1.2 which has been used in Alaska RFM fisheries certification.
The first phase of the project was a general desk top review of the consistency of Australian and Commonwealth fisheries management systems against the Conformance Criteria. As anticipated, the review demonstrated that there were no fundamental reasons why Australian fisheries management could not utilise FAO criteria as a basis for fisheries certification. The next step was to assess whether the Conformance Criteria were applicable at the fishery-level.
Compatibility assessment studies were carried out on two NSW fisheries which displayed varying degrees of complexity (species, gears, locations) in order to test the extremities of the FAO Based Conformance Criteria. The studies centred on testing how suitable both the FAO Based Conformance Criteria and the current accredited assessment procedures were for use for the assessment of Australian State fisheries.
