AFMA Officer inspecting a boat at port
AFMA has put the spotlight on targeting illegal activity in Commonwealth fisheries. This month, we’ll look at what AFMA is doing to tackle two of the many different ways illegal fishing activity can happen.
Fish Receivers
Over the last few months, AFMA officers have been busy connecting with all sorts of fish receivers to better understand their business practices and offer practical advice to help them to complete necessary paperwork. This paperwork then helps us to figure out just how much quota fishers have left. The quicker they can provide this information to us means the less chance they find themselves over quota.
We’ll be ramping up fish receiver inspections in the coming months and will be conducting audits on all receivers inspected. This is to ensure that fish receivers have all their paperwork in order and are operating in accordance with fish receiver permit requirements.
Any fish receivers who are found to be keeping poor records, or not returning their paperwork to AFMA in a timely manner may be subject to more in depth auditing and possible compliance action.
For more information, please contact Phil Ravanello, Manager National Intelligence on 02 62255 398 or phil.ravanello@afma.gov.au
Misreporting
A recent assessment found that some operators may be deliberately under-declaring or misreporting their catch or recording a different species to avoid using their allocated quota.
AFMA is cracking down on misreporting through a range of monitoring programs including surveillance, compliance assessments, intelligence gathering and media awareness strategies.
Quota managed fisheries are largely dependent on the reliability and accuracy of information provided through logbooks and catch disposal records. Without reliable, accurate and honest information the integrity of the quota system is undermined and this will impact the sustainability of our fish resources.
For more information about misreporting, please contact Glen Salmon, Manager National Compliance Operations Unit, on 02 6225 5395 or glen.salmon@afma.gov.au