Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1996 NO. 67

STATUTORY RULES 1996 No. 67

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Resources and Energy

Fisheries Management Act 1991

Fisheries Management Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 168(1) of the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General 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 14(1) of the Act provides that, for the purpose of conserving the marine environment, the regulations may prohibit, or make provision for the regulation of, the engaging in specified activities, or the use of specified practices, by, among others, persons (including foreign persons) engaged in fishing in the Australian fishing zone (AFZ).

The Fisheries Management Regulations (the principal Regulations) prescribe matters in support of the Act. In particular, regulation 19A of the Regulations previously required that Australian persons using pelagic or drifting longline fishing methods in waters south of the parallel of Latitude 30' South, use a Tori pole equipped with a bird line and streamer pairs (collectively known as Tori pole apparatus) when setting the longline. Schedule 3D of the principal Regulations provided minimum standards for construction and deployment of the Tori pole apparatus.

Tori pole apparatus works by frightening sea birds away from baited hooks on a longline while the hooks are floating near the surface of the water during deployment of the longline.

The purpose of the Fisheries Management Regulations (Amendment) (the Regulations) is to amend regulation 19A of, and Schedule 3D to the principal Regulations to:

*       apply the existing requirements for use of Tori pole apparatus to operators and crew of foreign fishing boats using pelagic or drifting longline fishing methods in the part of the Australian fishing zone that lies south of the parallel of Latitude 30' South; and

*       adapt the existing minimum standards for Tori pole apparatus to take account of the generally larger size of the foreign boats on which those methods are employed, when compared with Australian boats using those methods.

The Regulations extend the requirement to use Tori pole apparatus in the manner discussed above, to implement the results of recent negotiations with Japan on foreign access to the AFZ. At present, the only foreign boats fishing in the AFZ ate Japanese boats.

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

Regulation 1 provides that the Regulations amend the principal Regulations.

Regulation 2 amends regulation 19A by way of omission of the existing regulations and substitution of a new regulation, to extend the application of the regulation to foreign boats fishing in the circumstances described above.

Regulation 3 amends Schedule 3D to adapt the minimum standards for Tori pole apparatus to apply to the larger foreign boats, as discussed above. The only matter requiring adaptation is the length of the streamer pairs, as the larger foreign boats mount Tori poles higher above the water than the equivalent Australian boats.