Sustainability
Our wild fish stocks are a limited, but renewable resource. Most WA fisheries rely on relatively high value species, and concentrate on increasing the quality and value of the harvest rather than the volume.
Sustainable fishing is achievable with good management based on good science. In very simplistic terms you can fish, but you must leave enough breeding stock in the water so there is fish for the future.
Sustainable fishing is fundamental, and no one - professional or recreational fisher - consciously sets out to fish a fishery to extinction. But it can, and has happened.
The commercial fishing industry works in close co-operation with the Department of Fisheries to ensure the sustainability of our fisheries.
The tight management controls include limits on the numbers of licences, gear restrictions, seasonal closures and limits on fishing time or quota systems which controle the total quantity of fish that can be harvested by professional fishermen. Other measures can include permanent closed areas to protect juvenile or breeding fish or to protect important habitats.
All Western Australian fisheries that wish to export must demonstrate to the Commonwealth Government via ecological sustainability reports to Environment Australia that the fishery is managed for ecological sustainability.
For further information, please click on the Fisheries Assessment Fact Sheet. Download (23.41 Kb pdf)
Traditionally, the fisheries debate has been conducted between Government and the professional and recreational sectors. In recent times, the seafood consumer has entered the debate; for health reasons the seafood buying public wants to buy more seafood and wants to know the seafood they are eating is sustainable.
Q&A
How do you work out what share of the seafood resource goes to the professional fishing industry that catches for the seafood-buying public and what share goes to the recreational fisher who catches for his or her family and friends?
The Government has established a framework called Integrated Fisheries Management, which allocates shares of each fishery.
Are there any independent checks on how our fisheries are managed?
The Department of Fisheries reports on the status of each fishery under the Ecological Sustainable Development guidelines which has allowed all of the State's significant commercial fisheries to undergo independent assessment and achieve environmental certification under the Commonwealth Government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Visit Commonwealth Regulation to see all the WA fisheries that have achieved this certification.
How does a seafood consumer know that the seafood he or she is buying is sustainable?
Seafood consumers want to be assured that the seafood they buy is fished sustainably. Australian fisheries are subject to rigorous management controls to ensure that they are fished sustainably. Internationally, eco-labelling has been developed to tell consumers the food they are buying is sustainable. The most internationally recognised fishing eco labelling organisation is the Marine Stewardship Council.
