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Determining Resource Shares
Resource sharing describes arrangements that give different users, such as commercial and recreational fishers, shared access to the fish resources in a particular fishery. While in the past predominantly access by the commercial fishing industry has been regulated, resource sharing arrangements formalise shared access arrangements for all relevant user groups.
It is hoped that stakeholders will work within the parameters of the Australian Government’s Framework to come to mutual agreement on simple and cost-effective resource sharing arrangements that can be easily implemented and understood. The Government will then consider and endorse these where appropriate. However, if agreement is not possible, the Government may appoint an independent facilitator to work with stakeholders to develop options for resource sharing between user groups.
An independent facilitator was engaged by the Australian Government to finalise resource sharing options and provide advice on a recommended option in the Western Tuna and Billfish Fishery and is currently working to develop options for resource sharing in the Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery.
There are a number of ways in which a share of a resource can be expressed through an arrangement for effective management. These include: proportion of a Total Allowable Catch, proportion of mortality in a fishery, historical catch, spatial and temporal separation. These tools will be considered when determining options for resource sharing between user groups. It may be that in some cases a range of tools may provide the best way to meet stakeholders’ objectives in a fishery.
Confusion can occur between (1) resource sharing in Commonwealth fisheries; (2) fisheries management; and (3) Offshore Constitutional Settlement (OCS) fisheries arrangements. The differences and overlap between these are explained in the Department’s Resource Sharing Fact Sheet.