Under the Fisheries Legislation Amendment bill, commercial fishers will need to have e-monitoring equipment fitted to their vessels if directed. The technology relies on sensors to automatically record footage of fishing in commonwealth waters. The new regulations are being trailed in three commonwealth fisheries – the southern and eastern scalefish and shark fishery, the east coast tuna and billfish fishery, and the northern prawn fishery.
According to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority this new technology would change the face of existing data collection programs from observers, logbooks and vessel monitoring systems. The strategy is part of a business reform of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s biosecurity business areas. Import conditions will be updated, and new roles, functions and powers given to people charged with protecting the biosecurity of Australia.
These new regulations is the result of an independent review of Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity arrangements ordered by former Agricultural minister Tony Burke in 2008, when equine influenza was detected in NSW and south-east Queensland. A bill for improvements to water-efficiency labelling is also proposed.
