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Environmental Issues and Responses
Endangered species and fisheries interaction
Fishing is one of a number of processes that can cause, or contribute to, species becoming endangered or vulnerable. Both the deliberate catch and the unintended catch (bycatch) of marine species in commercial fishing operations can interact with endangered species.
The ESP Act provides a mechanism whereby species of native fauna and flora or ecological communities in Australia and Australian waters may be listed as endangered or vulnerable. Once listed, the Commonwealth must prepare a recovery plan within a specified period in relation to listed species or communities, during which time harvesting is prohibited. There are, however, provisions to take account of inadvertent capture. The recovery plan for an endangered species or ecological community must be prepared within 3 years of listing, while that for a species which is vulnerable is to be prepared within 5 years. The Director of National Parks and Wildlife is responsible for ensuring the preparation and administration of these plans.
Under the ESP Act, ‘key threatening processes’ may also be listed. A key threatening process is a process that threatens, or may threaten, the survival, abundance or evolutionary development of a native species or ecological community. For listing purposes, the process must adversely affect two or more listed species or ecological communities (or be likely to cause native species or communities to become endangered) and a nationally coordinated threat abatement plan must be feasible. The threat abatement plan must be prepared and implemented by the Commonwealth within 3 years of the listing. Listing a key threatening process does not automatically require the process to cease from the time of listing, unlike the listing of endangered or vulnerable species.
If the listed species, communities or processes occur outside Commonwealth areas, the Commonwealth is required to cooperate with the relevant States or Territories in preparing and implementing recovery and threat abatement plans.
The listing of endangered and vulnerable species and of key threatening processes involves the submission of a nomination to the Director of National Parks and Wildlife and referral of it to a ministerial-appointed Endangered Species Scientific Subcommittee (ESSS) for consideration and recommendation. The decision to list a species, community or process is made by the Minister for the Environment after considering the advice of the ESSS.
Several nominations under the schedules of the ESP Act, for listing of marine species which interact with Commonwealth-managed fisheries, were considered by the ESSS during 1997 and 1998, namely:
- grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) and great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) - resulted in listings as vulnerable species
- albatrosses - 4 species were listed as endangered species and 13 species were listed as vulnerable species; in addition, the Macquarie Island sub-population of the wandering albatross changed status from endangered species to vulnerable species because of a change in its taxonomic classification rather than its conservation status
- dugong (Dugong dugong) - nomination as a vulnerable species was rejected, however, its conservation status will be reviewed by the ESSS in 5 years
- southern school shark (Galeorhinus galeus) - the nomination as a vulnerable species was unsuccessful but the ESSS will seek an annual report from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) on condition of the species
- southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) - nomination as a vulnerable species is still under consideration; a nomination in 1994 was unsuccessful, and
- sawfishes (several marine species of Family Pristidae which may be taken as bycatch in the Northern Prawn Fishery) - nomination as vulnerable species is still under consideration.
With the exception of school shark and southern bluefin tuna, these species are not the subject of commercial exploitation. However, all may be taken incidentally during fishing operations. Great white and grey nurse sharks are sometimes caught incidentally in several fisheries under State or Commonwealth jurisdiction. The Australian catch of these two species is small, but there is a paucity of information on their population dynamics, and uncertainty surrounds their stock status.
The take of great white sharks and grey nurse sharks is now prohibited in Commonwealth waters and national recovery plans under the ESP Act will be developed for both species. Protection within State waters varies between States. Grey nurse sharks have been protected in New South Wales for many years. The New South Wales Fisheries Management Act 1994 has been extended to provide protection for the great white shark. In Tasmania, both species are protected under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. Protection in Queensland distinguishes between species: all take of the grey nurse shark is now banned while great white sharks are protected from targeting by recreational fishers. During 1997 the South Australian and Western Australian governments announced the drafting of regulations to prohibit the capture or killing of great white sharks and protection legislation was adopted in 1998.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added the great white shark to its Vulnerable Category (1996 Red List of Threatened Animals). In turn, the Humane Society International proposed that Australia nominate the great white shark for listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (see International Issues section below). Southern bluefin tuna was listed as critically endangered on the 1996 IUCN Red List. The IUCN criteria for the listing of marine species are currently being reviewed.
Over the last few years there has been increasing community concern over the incidental take (or bycatch) of marine species in commercial fishing operations. As a result of this increased concern, the Commonwealth from 1996 to 1998 (led by the AFMA) prepared a bycatch policy to address the problem strategically (see Strategic Marine Environmental Initiatives section below). Within the context of this policy response, there are a number of specific bycatch issues relating to endangered species.
Key threatening processes
In 1995 oceanic longline fishing was nominated and subsequently listed as a key threatening process under the ESP Act because of the incidental catch of seabirds. The nomination was based on the high bycatch of seabirds, especially albatrosses, on tuna longline hooks in the southern Australian Fishing Zone. Seabirds are attracted to baits used in longlining and dive on hooks during line setting, whereupon they occasionally become caught and drown. Since the ESP Act listing, fishing practices have been modified to reduce the incidental take of albatross. Modified practices include setting longlines at night, thawing bait, and deploying deterrent devices. The use of ‘tori’ lines - lines with bird scaring streamers - is mandatory within the AFZ, but their use on the high seas is voluntary and not all of the high seas longline fleet has adopted them.
Following the 1996 listing of longlining as a key threatening process under the ESP Act, Environment Australia and the AFMA held meetings with scientific, industry and conservation agencies to discuss the listing and develop a paper outlining the issues associated with seabird bycatch mitigation. In early 1997 a threat abatement team was formed to oversee the development of the required threat abatement plan (TAP) for oceanic longlining. During the consultative phase of TAP preparation, the use of bycatch reduction devices was promoted to encourage their wide adoption by longline vessels. The aim of the TAP is to minimise the bycatch of seabirds. The TAP was released in draft form in December 1997, public comment on it was received in May 1998 and the plan was released in August 1998.
Additional nominations to list fishing activities as key threatening processes were received during 1996 and 1997. Otter trawling for prawns was nominated on the basis that incidental catches of sea turtles, sea snakes and two species of fish (leatherjacket, Paramonacanthus spp.) threatened their survival. An interim decision announced in late 1997 indicated there was no evidence that otter trawling affects the two species of leatherjackets and that more detailed information was being sought on the effects on turtles with a final report due in late 1998. The ESSS further noted that if an effective turtle exclusion device (TED) program is implemented in Australia under other legislation or by industry initiative, then it may no longer be necessary to consider this application.
In early 1998, the Northern Prawn Fishery Management Advisory Committee (NORMAC) agreed that, from the start of the year 2000 fishing season, the fishery would adopt the compulsory use of TEDs and fish bycatch reduction devices. In the interim, it is encouraging the trial use of TEDs in the fishery. A nomination was also received to list gillnetting in tropical and subtropical northern waters (Moreton Bay in Queensland to Shark Bay in Western Australia) as a key threatening process under the ESP Act. This nomination is still being considered. Gillnetting principally targets barramundi, but dugong are caught in the large mono-filament mesh, especially in seagrass areas. Dugong numbers have fallen by as much as 80% in some regions over the past several years, and some localised populations are now at depressed levels. In July 1997 the Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council closed nine areas of the Great Barrier Reef to gillnetting, independent of the pending key threatening process nomination. Whilst gillnetting has contributed to this decline in species number, many other threatening activities have impacted upon dugong, including seagrass loss, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ hunting, and motorboat strikes.
Export controls
Export controls to protect Australia’s sea horses, sea dragons and pipefishes (collectively called syngnathids) were introduced on 1 January 1998 under the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1982. These fish are exported for use in traditional Asian medicine and for aquarium purposes. An estimated 150 000 specimens were exported from Australia between July 1995 and January 1997. Exporters are now required to obtain an export permit from Environment Australia, which will be issued only when the fish have been bred in captivity or taken from the wild under an approved harvesting program.
Exotic marine organisms
The introduction of exotic pests and diseases continues to be a threat to the sustainability of Australia’s fishing and aquaculture industries. At least 170 species of fish, invertebrates and seaweeds have been introduced into Australian waters through several intentional and inadvertent mechanisms, such as:
- discharge of ballast water in Australian ports and coastal waters
- attachment to the hulls of vessels (hull fouling)
- transportation in fishing gear and anchors
- movement of fisheries products or the movement or deliberate release of live fish
- importation for fish farming, and
- importation for the aquarium fish trade.
The outbreak of the giant fanworm Sabella spallanzanii in Port Phillip Bay and in several other port areas, the North Pacific seastar Asterias amurensis in Tasmania, and other introductions and algal blooms continue to cause both public and scientific concern. A new incursion of the large seaweed Undaria pinnatifida in Port Phillip Bay, apparently from New Zealand or Japan, added to concerns about marine pests. In the first half of 1998 around 50 juvenile North Pacific seastars were found in Port Phillip Bay. A contingency plan has been implemented and the extent of the problem is being assessed. The increasing infestation of areas within Australia by the movement of marine organisms from infested sites (translocation) is now recognised as a major environmental problem.
In September 1997 the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) announced the banning of import of the seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia. This species occurs naturally in tropical Australia but a cold-tolerant ‘hybrid’ strain, used overseas in the aquarium trade, does not occur naturally here and has the potential to colonise most of the southern coast, including Tasmania.
Marine protected areas
Commercial and recreational fishing are affected by the regulations associated with marine protected areas established by all tiers of government. The Commonwealth currently has responsibility for eight marine reserves created under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975. In September 1997 the Minister for the Environment announced the acceleration of the marine protected area program, with a view to creating a national representative system of marine protected areas (NRSMPA). To facilitate the NRSMPA, the Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas Committee was established in March 1998, comprising representatives from several Commonwealth agencies with interests in future marine protected areas. The IMCRA is a key tool for progressing the NRSMPA and, as indicated previously, the IMCRA has described Australia according to biogeographical provinces and bioregions in nearshore and offshore waters.
In April 1998 the Commonwealth Government proclaimed Australia’s second largest marine park, in the Great Australian Bight. This park is the first declared by the Commonwealth in southern temperate waters and will provide protection for the southern right whale, the Australian sea lion and a large range of benthic species. The park adjoins a State marine park and covers 2.3 million hectares. It comprises an area adjacent to the State inshore park, designated for mammal protection, and a second area 20 nm wide extending from the State park boundary to the limit of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone, designated to conserve benthic flora and fauna. Consultations were held with the fishing industry (including the Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishery Management Advisory Committee and the Southern Shark Fishery Management Advisory Committee) on the implications of the proposed management arrangements for the fishing industry. Comments on the proposal closed on 30 January 1998. Environment Australia will develop a management plan for the park, in consultation with interested parties.
Areas of the northwest shelf off Western Australia, of offshore New South Wales and of the sub-Antarctic islands are being considered for declaration as Commonwealth marine protected areas.
El Nino
El Nino – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effects are receiving wide publicity in Australia, with El Nino conditions resulting in lower than average rainfall over Australasia. Drought and bushfires in this part of the world, and storms and flooding in South America, have been attributed to strong El Niño conditions during 1997-98. ENSO has strong effects on wind patterns, ocean circulation and water temperatures, and it is not surprising that the success or failure of several fisheries is closely linked with ENSO. The Peruvian anchovy (sardine) fishery, for example, landed over 1 million tonnes in 1996, a La Nina year - when conditions are the reverse of El Nino conditions. With the return of El Niño conditions in 1997, the Peruvian sardine catch did not reach 37 000 t.
By affecting rainfall and nutrient runoff, ENSO events influence the productivity of fisheries in northern Australia, such as the Northern Prawn Fishery. ENSO effects are strongest at the equator but are dissipated at higher latitudes. The influences on fisheries along the eastern Australian seaboard are apparent but not clearly understood. Over the past year, fishers report massive shifts in species in their catches and in species availability along the southeastern coast. Oceanographic conditions off southeastern Australia are influenced by the interaction of the warm (>16°C) East Australian Current running southwards along the coast, and the cooler (<14°C) west wind drift south of Tasmania. Pulses of warm, tropical water dominate conditions off southeastern Australia. Those strong seasonal patterns interact with longer-term effects like ENSO events. Oceanographic conditions that affect fish abundance and fishing success include water temperatures, current strengths and productivity. Those conditions can affect fishing directly (for example albacore tuna have a preference for waters of 17-19°C), or indirectly through effects on the abundance of prey species and spawning success. Tropical water has reached as far south as northeastern Tasmania during La Nina periods (for example 1989-90), resulting in the appearance there of tropical species such as yellowfin tuna.