Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2000 (NO. 4) 2000 NO. 337

STATUTORY RULES 2000 No. 337

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Fisheries Management Act 1991

Fisheries Management Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 4)

Subsection 168(1) of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (the Act) empowers the GovernorGeneral to make regulations required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed and regulations necessary or convenient to be prescribed in carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Subsection 8(1) of the Act provides that the regulations may provide that, in relation to a specified area outside the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ) the Act applies to:

*       Australian citizens; and

*       bodies corporate that are incorporated in Australia or carry on activities in Australia; and

*       Australian boats; and

*       persons on board Australian boats.

Subsection 8(2) provides that the Act applies subject to any exceptions or modifications specified in the regulations, and subsection 8(3) provides that where a provision of the Act applies to such an area then, subject to the regulations, references in that provision to the AZF are to be read as references to that area.

The areas to which the application of the Act have been extended are described in Part 2 of the Fisheries Management Regulations (the principal Regulations). These areas include waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory and an area known as Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) sub-area 58.5.2. The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Fishery (HIMIF) is within CCAMLR sub-area 58.5.2.

The Fisheries Management Amendment Regulations (the Regulations) extends the application of the Act to an area between the Antarctic continent and the HIMIF. This allows permits to be issued under the Act to the two Australian permit holders in the HIMIF in relation to exploratory fishing on three potential new fishing grounds that lie within that area.

Australia is a signatory to the CCAMLR, which establishes a Commission that, among other things, determines conservation measures to be applied to various areas within the area covered by the Convention. Since November 1994 the Commission has set a substantial total allowable catch for Patagonian toothfish in the area of the HIMIF.

Operators wishing to gain access to any part of the area that is outside the current application of the Act would be required to obtain, in addition to existing fishing permits, a permit under the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Conservation Act 1981 (the AMLRC Act) as administered by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, for that part of the area that lies outside the AFZ and outside the HIMIF. Extending the Act to the areas of the new fishing grounds that lie outside the AFZ obviates the necessity for operators to obtain two separate authorisations for a single fishing trip, and places the full responsibility for operational management of all commercial fishing within the area with a specialist fisheries management agency.

Details of the Regulations, which commenced on gazettal, are set out below:

Regulation 1 provides for the Regulations to be cited as the Fisheries Management Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 4).

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations commence on gazettal.

Regulation 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends the principal Regulations.

Schedule 1 Item 1 amends a word in Regulation 4 of the principal Regulations.

Schedule 1 Item 2 replaces the heading for Regulation 4AB to correct the reference to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

Schedule 1 Item 3 inserts a new Regulation 4AD which describes the area to which the application of the Act is to be extended.