The offshore oil and gas industry is a very important component of Western Australia’s economy and a significant player in the shared marine environment.
Although the economic scale of WA’s commercial fishing industry is smaller than oil and gas by some orders of magnitude, fishing, pearling and aquaculture remain a crucial part of the State’s economic, social, cultural, environmental and heritage perspective – particularly in regional WA.
WAFIC continues to work closely with the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) for activities in commonwealth waters, the Department of Mines, Industry, Regulations and Safety (DMIRS) for activities in state waters and also engages regularly with the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) – the offshore oil and gas sector’s peak body.
A key gap still exists with open and transparent consultation between the commercial fishing and oil, gas and seismic sectors in the methodology of consultation with commercial fishers – often the only “relevant and potentially affected parties” to offshore activities coupled with the limited research related to the impacts of seismic surveys on commercial fishing activities, targeted resources for commercial fisheries and the broader marine environment.
Commercial fishing peak bodies, APPEA, NOPSEMA and other industry representatives have acknowledged the lack of scientific consensus.
Unfortunately, despite the issue of potential seismic impacts being acknowledged and recognised there has been limited progress in recent years. WAFIC has (successfully) applied for funding via the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) for a three-year project –. Project title “2017-186 Oil and Gas: National coordination – seismic and other issues”, project number 2017-186 http://frdc.com.au/project/2017-186 .
Key project outcomes include:
- Deliver a publicly accessible FRDC sited portal – a “one-stop-shop” for published seismic research relating to commercial fishing activities and the commercial fishing resource.
- Deliver ongoing identification and qualification of relevant research papers to ensure this site remains current.
- Assist industry to identify research gaps relevant to the effects of oil, gas and seismic activities on commercial fishing / commercial fishing resource etc, ie gap analysis and prioritisation.
- Create Fishery Profiles for commercial fisheries to assist the oil, gas and seismic sectors to accurately target their EP consultation and to assist in the reduction of stakeholder fatigue.
- To work with APPEA, Seafood Industry Australia and other peak bodies to produce and agreed APPEA / SIA EP stakeholder consultation guideline document.
For further information on this project please contact Mannie Shea via oilandgas@wafic.org.au .
In addition to facilitating this national seismic coordination role, WAFIC also offers oil and gas proponents, on a fee-for-service basis, commercial fishing stakeholder consultation for NOPSEMA, DMIRS and other environment plans. Please click HERE for information on WAFIC’s fee-for-service schedule.
This approach will in time provide greater certainty for the fishing industry by improving engagement with the oil and gas sector and achieving positive research, communication and consultation outcomes.