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Fish transhipping in the sea. (Photo: Pew Charitable Trusts)
AFMA responds to accusations against its draft transhipping policy
(AUSTRALIA, 7/6/2018)
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) claims that the campaign launched by two conservation NGOs against draft fish transhipping policy contains “spurious and misleading information.”
From AFMA, it is informed it is currently seeking public comments on this policy as well as guidelines regarding the authorisation of transhipping activities in Commonwealth fisheries and stated that the AFMA Commission will consider all public submissions before it decides whether to accept, amend or reject the policy.
“I am very concerned that the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Save Our Marine Life continue to mislead the Australian public about the management of Commonwealth fisheries,” pointed out James Findlay, AFMA Chief Executive Officer.
The Officer stressed that both organisation’s claim that transhipping will lead catch "to increase to industrial scales never seen before" is not true, as AFMA manages fisheries using a sustainable total allowable catch (TAC) limits and quota allocated to fishers based on science. "Transhipping does not affect TACs" he stated.
Furthermore, he highlighted that recent research has found that, compared to other sources of animal protein, products derived from marine fisheries and destined for human consumption produce relatively low greenhouse gas emissions and claimed that transhipping can reduce fuel consumption, further minimising the environmental footprint of commercial fishing.
Findlay said that transhipping already occurs in Australian fisheries, since the practice is already authorised by AFMA due to the fact that Authority deems it allows for faster processing, improving quality and freshness for seafood consumers and ensures the best use of the resource as well as improving economic returns to the Australian community.
The Officer explained that the new research showing a 30 per cent decline in fish stocks mentioned by The Australian Marine Conservation Society and Save Our Marine Life incorrectly applied a fish count of inshore species like wrasse and luderick to Commonwealth managed fish that do not occur in the shallow waters surveyed and incorrectly used catch to estimate a decline in biomass without considering other reasons for the decline in catch like fishing effort buybacks or reducing catch to prevent overfishing.
He claimed that AFMA would not use this type of research to manage Commonwealth fisheries as it is badly flawed.
In addition, he said that the claim made by the two NGOs that "this is the first time the sustainability of Australia’s fisheries management has been tested against real fish count data is not correct. In this sense, he pointed out that independent surveys, for example scientific trawl surveys, egg count surveys and acoustic surveys, are used in many of AFMA fisheries.
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