AFMA seeks public comment on rebuilding strategies for orange roughy, blue warehou

Trawler with a catch of orange roughy (Photo: WWF)

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) has begun undertaking a five-year review of the rebuilding strategies for orange roughy and blue warehou and is seeking public comments to help inform the development of the revised rebuilding strategies.

The current rebuilding strategies can be accessed here:

Fisheries management policies and strategies are developed to support the legislative and regulatory framework for Commonwealth fisheries. For overfished stocks, AFMA ensures that targeted fishing ceases and develops a rebuilding strategy with consultation and input from industry and key stakeholders – with the purpose of rebuilding the stock to above its limit reference point.

A rebuilding strategy will be required until the stock is assessed as being above the limit reference point with a reasonable level of certainty.

AFMA must also ensure that adequate monitoring and data collection are in place to assess the status of the stock and rebuilding progress, and to satisfy requirements of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). A rebuilding strategy must include performance measures and details on how and when these measures will be reported on.

AFMA has undertaken a review of the rebuilding strategies with expert input and advice obtained from AFMA’s Resource Assessment Groups and Management Advisory Committees. Reports detailing outcomes from the initial five-year reviews conducted in 2019 are available here:

AFMA will consider and incorporate feedback from this consultation process with a view to seeking endorsement of the revised rebuilding strategies from the AFMA Commission at its May 2021 meeting.

The key items AFMA is seeking feedback on are the proposed revisions to the existing rebuilding strategies outlined in the following documents: orange roughy key points and blue warehou key points.

Feedback can be sent to AFMA via email at [email protected]. Submissions can also be made online via AFMA’s external public comment website and will close on February 12, 2021.


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