Australia: The fishery status reports for 2009 show a substantial improvement in the number of Commonwealth-managed stocks classified as "not overfished" and "not subject to overfishing".
The report, by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics – Bureau of Rural Sciences (ABARE–BRS), assesses the status of 101 fish stocks managed by the Australian Government.
ABARE–BRS Deputy Executive Director Paul Morris said "the number of stocks classified as 'uncertain' has been increasing since the inception of the fishery status reports in 1992. However, in 2008 and again in 2009 this trend was strongly reversed with 15 stocks being removed from an uncertain 'overfished' status and 21 stocks from an uncertain 'overfishing' status in 2009."
"Most of the previously 'uncertain status' stocks that have now been assessed were found to be not overfished or not subject to overfishing."
Across all assessed stocks, the report shows that 59 stocks are classified 'not overfished', compared with 44 in 2008 and that stocks classified as 'not subject to overfishing' also increased substantially from 57 in 2008 to 73 in 2009. 30 stocks are classified 'uncertain' in terms of their overfished status, compared with 41 in 2008 and 18 stocks are classified 'uncertain' in terms of their overfishing status, compared with 33 in 2008. Reducing uncertainty in Commonwealth-managed fisheries helps to aid the sustainable management of fish stocks.
Of the 15 stocks classified as 'overfished' and/or 'subject to overfishing' in 2009 (compared with 18 in 2008), seven are classified as both overfished and subject to overfishing. Of the remaining eight stocks, five are classified as overfished only and three are classified as subject to overfishing only.
The seven stocks that are both overfished and subject to overfishing are: blue warehou, gulper sharks and school shark in the southern and Eastern scalefish and shark fishery, sandfish in the Torres Strait sea cucumber fishery, bigeye tuna in the eastern tuna and billfish fishery, toothfish in the Antarctic waters fishery and southern bluefin tuna.
The report also includes information on the economic position of Commonwealth fishers. Since 2000–01, the real value of Commonwealth fisheries production has declined sharply, falling by 48 percent from a peak of AU$600.2 million (US$580 million) in 2000–01. However, most of this decline occurred from 2000–01 to 2005–06, after which the value of Commonwealth fisheries production stabilised.
In 2008–09, production earnings of Commonwealth fisheries increased by 5 per cent to AU$314 million (US$303 million), contributing 14 percent of the total AU$2.2 billion (US$ 2.13 billion) value of Australian fisheries' production.
