Draft Minutes South East mac 5
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SOUTH EAST MANAGEMENT aDVISORY COMMITTEE (SEMAC) Meeting No. 12 6 June 2013 Draft Minutes Keelty Room - Novotel Canberra Attendance
1 Arrived at 9:29 am 2 Arrived at 10:16 am 3 Attended the middle session 4 Joined at 2:25 pm 5 Presented Agenda Item 2.3 6 Presented Agenda Item 4.6 1Preliminaries 1.1Welcome and apologies Mr McCormack (MAC Chair) opened the meeting at 9.12 am and welcomed members and observers to South East MAC’s eleventh meeting. Mr McCormack advised that this would be his last meeting as Chair and indicated he was pleased to be able to introduced incoming Chair Ms Diane Tarte to the Committee. Mr McCormack noted that this would also be the last meeting of the current MAC and that AFMA was currently in the process of appointing members for the Committee’s next three year term. Mr McCormack noted that MAC meetings tended to finish in a hurry as agendas were typically full and with members hurrying to catch flights. Mr McCormack indicated that he would like to formally thank members, observers and AFMA management at the start of the meeting for their support help over the last eight years with SEMAC and its predecessors GHaTMAC and SPFMAC. Mr McCormack acknowledged Mr Stevens (representing the AFMA Commission) and Mr Scott and recalled his long and productive professional relationship with them during through the development of Offshore Constitutional Settlements and implementation of quotas in the early 1990s. Mr McCormack indicated that industry had come a long way since then and that he had really enjoyed being part of the process. Mr McCormack sincerely wished all present well for the future. Mr Richard Stevens (OA) then addressed the Committee. Mr Stevens firstly noted an apology from the Hon. Michael Egan (AFMA Chair) who was overseas and indicated that in Mr Egan’s absence it was his pleasure, as Acting Chair of AFMA, to formally thank Mr McCormack for his service to AFMA. Mr Stephens also noted the appreciation of his fellow AFMA Commissioners for Mr McCormack’s service. Mr Stevens noted that he and fellow Commissioners Mr Ian Cartwright and Professor Keith Sainsbury had maintained longstanding professional relationships with Mr McCormack and noted that both gentlemen conveyed their best wishes. Mr Stevens spoke about the challenges of fisheries management from the perspective of a regulator and in particular the difficult decisions that needed to be made but which were not always welcomed by industry and other stakeholders. Mr Stevens reflected on AFMA’s early days when he was Managing Director and acknowledged the close working relationship with Mr McCormack when he was with Victorian Department of Fisheries. Mr Stevens indicated that these cooperative approaches had improved stock assessments, paved the way for the allocation of quota and the overall harmonisation of Commonwealth and state management arrangements. Mr Stevens noted that this had been a difficult period but considered that these arrangements had stood the test of time and had helped prepare industry for contemporary challenges. Mr Stevens then recognised Mr McCormack’s work with GHaT MAC and SEMAC and indicated his chairmanship had been instrumental in establishing strong and effective management measures in the SESSF. Mr Stevens considered there had been a continual improvement in the status of the stocks in fishery although noted that it had at times being difficult. Mr Stevens noted that Mr McCormack had skilfully guided members from diverse backgrounds to provide high quality, considered management advice to AFMA. Mr Stevens paid tribute to Mr McCormack’s cooperative and inclusive approach which had been an important factor in dealing with contentious issues such as the protection of Gulper Sharks and Australian Sea-lions. Ms Tarte thanked Mr McCormack for the opportunity to participate in the meeting and acknowledged the roles of the MACs in the substantial progress made on a range of difficult issues. Ms Tarte thanked AFMA for its confidence in offering her the appointment and hoped to continue the positive approach Mr McCormack had fostered in SEMAC. The Chair recorded apologies from Mr Geen (SPF industry member), Mr Morison (research member), Dr Knuckey (research invited participant) and Mr Hatzimihalis (squid invited participant). The Committee welcomed the participation of Dr Nick Rayns (Executive Manager Fisheries Branch) during the Committee’s consideration of management items. The Chair thanked AFMA for getting papers out early for the meeting in electronic format. 1.2Declaration of interests The Committee then reviewed the draft table of member’s and invited participant’s standing declarations. Ms Lawrence (conservation member) and Mr Scott (industry member) arrived after this item had been discussed and with the support of the Chair addressed the requirements of Agenda Item 1.2 directly. Mr Scott asked it be noted that in relation to this meeting he had a conflict with those agenda items requiring decisions. Table 1 reflects the updated record of members’ and invited participants’ declared interests and those of a number of observers. Table 1: Members’, observers’ and officers’ declared interests as at the 6th June 2013.
1.3Acceptance of agenda The MAC adopted the draft agenda and agreed to adopt a flexible approach to the order in which some items were discussed. A copy of the final agenda is provided as Attachment 1. 1.4Confirmation of minutes from South East MAC Meeting No. 11 The MAC supported, with editorial amendments, the minutes of South East MAC Meeting Number 11 (TAC recommendations) held in Canberra on the 30th and 31st January 2013 as a true and accurate record of the meeting. The Committee noted minutes from two SEMAC teleconference held on the: 18 March 2013 Pink Ling TAC, School Shark rebuild timeframe and Bycatch TAC, Australian Sea-lion closures and Deepwater Shark Direction. 5 April 2013 Small Pelagic Fishery TAC recommendations. The Executive Officer confirmed that both sets of minutes had been finalised by email exchange. 1.5Correspondence The MAC noted three items of incoming correspondence, two items copied to the MAC for information and one letter from the and one outgoing email from the MAC Executive Officer in relation to member nominations for SEMAC’s next term of office. The Committee referred to a copy of AFMA’s letter to the MAC and industry associations which set out the draft 2013 Budgets for the SETF, GHaT, SPF and SSJF. The Committee recalled that budget matters were formerly were a major item before the MACs but noted that they now occupied much less of the Committee’s time. The AFMA member explained that AFMA worked closely with industry in developing the draft budgets. The trawl member indicated that the trawl sector was happy with the process and that we were working towards a number that is survivable. The MAC noted that the other industry members were comfortable with the co-management approach for financial matters. Industry members acknowledged AFMA Management’s following up quickly in relation to their concerns through budget iterations. The AFMA member noted that AFMA was committed to providing quick feedback but needed to ensure that their advice on budget questions was consistent across its all fisheries (document control). The MAC noted there had been further reductions in the draft fishery budgets. 1.6Action arising from SEMAC 11 The MAC considered that satisfactory progress had been made against 4 of the 16 action items recorded at its January 2013 meeting. The MAC noted that technical items referred to GABRAG/GABMAC (Old Action 6), ShelfRAG (Old Action 8) and SharkRAG (Old Action 10) had not been addressed as those RAGs hadn’t convened in the intervening period. Four items were referred to SESSF RAG and progress against those is reported under Agenda Item 5.1 - Update from SESSF RAG Chair’s Meeting. Mr Bromley AFMA provided an update on Old Action Item 3 noting that AFMA had made a submission on Blue Warehou to SEWPaC’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee (copies tabled at the meeting). Mr Bromley understood that the Environment Minister was required to make a decision on Blue Warehou by September 2014. Mr Bromley advised that AFMA had convened a Blue Warehou workshop in May in Melbourne to investigate assessment options and had appreciated a presentation from Dr Jeremy Prince in relation to the potential suitability of Spawning Potential Ratio (SPR) analysis for Blue Warehou. The trawl industry member noted that the trawl sector was supportive if fresh approaches and hoped its industry based length frequency collection would feed into improved assessments. Mr Bromley noted the targeting analysis by CSIRO indicated that there was negligible targeting by trawl and gillnet sectors and this greatly assisted AFMA defend its Bycatch TAC approach. The MAC then discussed old action items (2, 4, 7, 14 and 16) in more detail and noted that these would be assigned new numbers in the Action List developed from this meeting (SEMAC 12). Old Action 2 Sustainable Shark Fishing Incorporated (SSFI) to report back to South East MAC regarding progress with the Code of Conduct. Mr Bailey (shark invited participant) referred to the association’s decision to include manual set hook methods in its Code of Conduct had meant additional consultation was needed with fishers who used demersal longlines to target shark. Mr Bailey explained, in his capacity as Acting President of SSFI, that he had decided to travel around to meet with the line fishers as the costs in trying to get them all along to a central meeting were prohibitive given the generally smaller scale of these operations. Mr Bailey noted that there were only a few fishers in Victoria and a couple in South Australia that he was yet to catch up with. The MAC was pleased to note that feedback on the gillnet section from that sector had been positive. The MAC looked forward to Sustainable Shark Fishing Incorporated (SSFI) executive finishing the consultation with hook fishers to enable a section on traditional longlining practices to be added to their Code. Mr Bailey expected that SSFI would then be able to finalise their Code once this additional work was completed. The Conservation member noted that the Shark Industry Alliance (SSIA) were close to or had finalised their Code of Conduct and recalled earlier discussion about the potential complications which might arise though comparisons of the two shark associations’ respective Codes of Conduct. The Conservation member emphasised that these codes need to be brought together. The Committee agrred that two codes could create inconsistencies in relation to standards and could be perceived unfavourably if other stakeholders considered that operators could pick and choose different strategies or courses of action. The MAC recognised that the shark associations held different positions on a number of issues but didn’t think this should preclude the development of a unified Code of Conduct noting it was primarily about mitigating interactions with protected species and addressing bycatch obligations. Mr Bailey indicated that SSFI remained open about amalgamating its Code with SSIAs however noted that SSFI had decided against incorporating guidance for the auto-longline method as its use in the shark fishery wasn’t supported by its membership. The shark industry member noted that, as a member of SSIA, he considered that industry should only be operating under one Code and acknowledged the good work of the Victorian based shark fishers in relation to gillnet protocols. The Committee welcomed a willingness from SSFI to work cooperatively and appreciated Mr Toumazos (shark member) agreeing to raise the need for a unified code with SSIA.
Shark industry member to raise amalgamation of the shark Codes of Conduct with the SSIA Executive. Action 2 – Sustainable Shark Fishing Incorporated (SSFI) SSFI to continue to report back to South East MAC regarding progress with their Code of Conduct. Old Action 4. AFMA to develop a MAC review paper on historic closures in the SESSF The AFMA member noted that AFMA had commenced this project and initial work was directed at historic closures in the GHaT. The AFMA member advised that AFMA intended to revoke a number of closures in the GHaT because they were now overlayed by other closures (i.e. marine reserves). The trawl member indicated that the trawl sector would welcome a similar review of trawl closures. The member cited the Portland inshore closure as an example of a closure originally intended to limit the creep of the ‘trawl footprint’ rather than provide specific protection as a potential candidate for removal given recent implementation of large deepwater closures nearby. The member added that the trawl sector would appreciate a review being given a high priority as they were struggling in response to recent Gulper closures and other constraints. The AFMA member commented that even the removal of closures which were now redundant because they were enclosed within Commonwealth Marine Reserves would simplify AFMA’s workload and reduce the amount of paperwork in AFMA’s annual Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery Management Arrangements Booklet (73 pages). Mr Stevens agreed that were sound reasons for simplifying arrangements, firstly because it represented sensible fisheries management, secondly because industry had to comply and because AFMA had to administer them. The GAB invited participant indicated that most fishery specific closures in the GAB were now overlayed by MPAs which reflected in part GABIA’s anticipation of the planning process for the South-west Marine Reserves Network. The GAB participant agreed that closures now contained within marine reserves should be removed once the network is gazetted in 2014. The MAC welcomed AFMA making a start on the review of historic closures in the GHaT and sought assurances from AFMA that this process would be applied to other gear sectors. Yüklə 262,58 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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