Sustainability notes

This is an overview of how the Western Australia rock lobster fishery scored in its second  reassessment against the MSC standard (beginning October 2010).

For the certifiers evaluation please download the full public certification report with detailed information on the performance of this fishery against the criteria of the MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing.

The fishery scored as follows in assessment against the MSC standard for sustainable fishing. The highest possible score for each principle is 100 and a fishery must score at least 80 against each principle to get certified:

Sustainability strengths

The points on which the fishery scored 90 or above (near perfect performance) are outlined below.

The assessment supports a high to very high degree of confidence that:

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

• The stock is above the point where recruitment would be impaired
• The target reference point is such that the stock is maintained at a level consistent with BMSY (Biomass and maximum sustainable yield)
• There is an adequate assessment of the stock status
  
  

Principle 2: the impact of the fishery on the marine environment

• There is a high degree of confidence that there are no significant detrimental effects (direct and indirect) of the fishery on ETP (endangered, threatened and protected) species.
• Accurate and verifiable information is available on the magnitude of all impacts, mortalities and injuries and the consequences for the status of ETP species.
• There is adequate knowledge of the impacts of the fishery on the ecosystem.
  
  

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

• The management system exists within an appropriate and effective legal and/or customary framework
• The fishery has a research plan that addresses the information needs of management.
• There is a system for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the fishery-specific management system against its objectives.

Challenges

In order to ensure its continuing sustainable operation this fishery made a commitment to improving its performance where it scored between 60-80.

The actions the fishery has committed to by the 2nd annual audit are:

• Providing control rules that are well defined.
• Providing evidence on how the information that is currently collected is used to inform/assess the formal control rules.
• Providing evidence that sufficient reliable information on the spatial extent of the fishery has been collected to identify the nature of the impacts of the fishery on different habitat types.