The ecosystem and precautionary approaches in Australian fisheries: five case studies

1. The ecosystem and precautionary approaches in Australian fisheries: five case studies Dr Jon Nevill jonathan.nevill@gmail.com School of Government, Utas OnlyOnePlanet Consulting OnlyOnePlanet Australia

2. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

3. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

4. 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 decision-makers 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

5. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

6. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

7. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

8. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

9. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

10. Benchmarking: benchmark elements - precaution Table 7.2 Benchmarks for the precautionary approach: onlyoneplanet.com.au

11. Benchmarking: benchmark elements – the ecosystem approach Table 8.4 Benchmarks for the ecosystem approach: onlyoneplanet.com.au

12. CCAMLR krill fishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking:CCAMLR’s krill fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

13. Northern Prawn Trawl Fishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking: the northern prawn trawl fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

14. Australia's orange roughy fishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking: Australia’s orange roughy fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

15. South Australian abalone fishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking: South Australia’s abalone fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

16. WA western rock lobster fishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking: WA’s western rock lobster fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

17. Victoria's recreational spearfishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking: Victoria’s recreational spear fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

18. Tasmania's recreational gillnet fishery Benchmark 1 Benchmark 6 Benchmark 2 Benchmark 5 Benchmark 3 Precaution Benchmark 4 EBFM Benchmarking:Tasmania’s recreational gillnet fishery onlyoneplanet.com.au

19. 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. onlyoneplanet.com.au

20. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

21. 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... OnlyOnePlanet Australia

22. 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. OnlyOnePlanet Australia

23. 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). onlyoneplanet.com.au

24. 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. onlyoneplanet.com.au

25. 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. onlyoneplanet.com.au

26. 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