Foreword

Summary

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Economics of fisheries management

Production, trade and costs

The fisheries

Large fisheries

Small fisheries

Commercial fishing and regional communities

Appendices

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1 Introduction

This year’s economic status report is the second in an annual series which commenced in 2007. The report builds on the previous edition, and provides an update of the economic status of each Commonwealth Fishery managed by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA). AFMA manages more than 20 fisheries on behalf of the Australian Government. Together, these fisheries accounted for around 13 per cent of the gross value of production of Australian fisheries in 2006-07. The Fisheries Management Act 1991 binds AFMA to pursue a number of objectives (box 1). A key objective is to maximise the net economic returns to the Australian community from the management of Commonwealth fisheries. This report provides an outline of the economic performance indicators against which fisheries can be evaluated. Then, for each Commonwealth fishery, an inventory of currently available information is presented. Given the available information, the economic status of each Commonwealth fishery is assessed. For some fisheries, there is limited information available on which to make an assessment of the fishery’s economic performance. Over time, information gaps will be addressed so it is increasingly possible to assess the performance of fisheries and their management against economic efficiency criteria. The ABARE economic status reports will build on this information and provide ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the economic performance of Commonwealth fisheries. It is important to note that, in some cases, it will be worthwhile to fill as many information gaps as possible. However, in many small value fisheries, the potential benefits of filling these gaps are unlikely to outweigh the costs of doing so. This report is divided into four main sections: The economics of fisheries management – including a framework for assessing the economic performance of fisheries, economic performance indicators and how much to spend on performance monitoring. Production, trade and costs – detailing Commonwealth fisheries production, Australian imports and exports of fisheries products, and recent movements in exchange rates and fuel costs. Assessment and description of each fishery – where the level of detail for each fishery is dependent on the availability of information. Broad themes include: – location – volume and value of production and catch composition – current and future management arrangements – biological status (information obtained from the most recent Bureau of Rural Sciences Fishery Status Report 2007, Larcombe and Begg (2008)) – financial performance and – economic performance Employment in commercial fishing – information is provided on the major home and unloading ports for most Commonwealth fisheries. For these port locations, Australian Bureau of Statistics census data for 2006 are used to show employment by major industry (2007).

box 1 AFMA objectives In the Fisheries Management Act the objectives that AFMA must pursue include: Implementing efficient and cost-effective fisheries management on behalf of the Commonwealth; Ensuring the harvesting of fisheries resources and the carrying on of any related activities are conducted in a manner consistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development (which include the exercise of the precautionary principle), in particular the need to have regard to the impact of fishing activities on non-target species and the long term sustainability of the marine environment; Maximising net economic returns to the Australian community from the management of Australian fisheries; Ensuring accountability to the fishing industry and to the Australian community in AFMA’s management of fisheries resources; and Achieving government targets in relation to the recovery of the costs of AFMA Source: AFMA (2006a).