A New Approach to Fisheries Management in Western Australia

Research PaperThe high ecological, social and economic value placed on Western Australia’s aquatic environment creates a significant obligation on the WA Department of Fisheries to develop and implement appropriate and sustainable resource management strategies for the State's fisheries and fish habitats. Historically, fisheries management in Western Australia has been based on meeting the management requirements of each sector or user group, without necessarily taking into account the overall impact of these user groups on fish stocks or their environment. A sectoral based approach to management has been used successfully to date and most stocks are still in good condition by world standards. However, the majority of fish stocks are now fully exploited and under increasing pressure from a growing population, coastal development and the demands of competing user groups. The current management approach is not able to effectively counter these pressures, nor meet the requirements of a wider Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) approach. In response, the Western Australian Department of Fisheries is undertaking ground-breaking work in a shift towards a more integrated management approach, incorporating an explicit allocation based model within an ESD framework. The new approach will bring new environmental performance reporting standards and assist fisheries managers to explicitly consider biodiversity and resource conservation alongside economic and social well-being. This paper profiles the long-term contribution that fisheries management is making to ecological sustainability of the WA’s fish and their habitats and outlines current initiatives to ensure management keeps pace in the new millennium