Certified as sustainable on 13 June 2008

Summary

Species: Mulloway (Argyrosomus hololepidotus); Golden Perch (callop) (Macquaria ambigua);Yellow-Eyed Mullet (Aldrichetta forsteri) and Pipis [Donax (Plebidonax) deltoides].
Location: 'Lakes and Coorong' includes the waters of the Coorong, Lake Alexandrina, Lake Albert and the coastal waters out to 3 nautical miles from low water mark from the seaward extension of the Goolwa Beach Road to the jetty at Kingston.
Fishing methods:  A wide range of gear types are allowed in the fishery. Fishing licences control the number and types of gear permitted for use.
Number of fisheries: 1

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Do you source fish from this fishery?

Show your customers how the fish is caught – download and display this case study from our Net Benefits report.
Download Fishers' stories - Net Benefits 2009 - Lakes and Coorong South Australia (PDF, 200kb)

Commercial market

All product is sold to domestic markets.

The fishery has been in operation for 154 years and is based in a national park that includes a protected wetland. With a hands-on approach to fishing, the Coorong fishers use manually-operated gear in order to reduce by-catch.

The fishers have a close relationship with the ecosystem, seeing it as their duty to responsibly manage, maintain and even enhance the environmental integrity of the Coorong region on behalf of the local community.

Four species in the fishery have met the MSC standard: golden perch (callop), pipis (Goolwa cockles), mulloway and yellow-eye mullet. These species serve domestic markets in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, and there is a growing export market for pipis.

WWF-Australia and WWF-US provided support to the Lakes and Coorong Fishery throughout the certification assessment process.

“Pursuing Marine Stewardship Council certification was part of the Southern Fishermen’s Association’s commitment to its objectives of economical, ecological and social responsibility. To underpin the sustainability of the fishery by an independent third party was vital to demonstrate to the people of South Australia that the fishers of the Lakes and Coorong Fishery are responsible stewards of the resource. We believe that MSC certification is the way of the future for commercial fisheries of Australia.”

Garry Hera-Singh
President, Southern Fishermen’s Association

“The Lakes and Coorong mixed fishery is the first community-based fishery certified in Australia, and WWF hopes that the Southern Fishermen’s Association’s achievements encourage other fisheries in the region to show their commitment to sustainable fishing practices by applying for MSC certification.”

Meredith Lopuch
Deputy Director, WWF Sustainable Seafood Initiative

Lakes and Coorong movie

In July 2008, Australian channel ABC produced a short report on the Lakes and Coorong community fishery. Visit the ABC web site to watch the short movie about the lakes and Coorong fishery.

For more information, visit the Lakes and Coorong Commercial Fishery.

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. Please note that each species assessed in the fishery was scored seperately under Principle 1: 

Sustainability strengths

Some points on which the fishery scored over 90 are outlined below. 

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

• The commercial component of the fishery is a limited entry fishery comprising 36 fishers.Exploitation is managed using a mix of gear restrictions, spatial and temporal closures, restrictions on the
  number of agents permitted to assist fishing operations and legal size limits.Recreational fishers are also constrained by gear restrictions, spatial and temporal closures
  and legal size limits.
• In addition to the formal management arrangements, the commercial fishers in the Lakes and Coorong Fishery have adopted fishing practices that reflect the changing abundances of the different species. Harvesting switches to target different species at different times of the year and away from species that have experienced a decline in abundance.

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

• The fishery has a code of practice about catch of non-target species which is intended to act to reduce any impacts of fishing. In addition, the fishery is developing a form of environmental management system to underpin its operations.

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

• The management system has both a formal and informal internal system for evaluation of management performance as it relates to the sustainability of the fishery. The management plan for the fishery is in place for 5 years and subject to annual review and amendments as necessary. The fishery is managed in a consultative way, with stakeholders and fishers involved in management changes and sustainability issues in the fishery.
• The management system has processes for establishing a research plan to support the understanding of the impacts of the fishery on the ecosystem. This plan is achieved through the IFMC designed jointly by experts, managers and stakeholders to support the ecosystem
  and to address significant environmental impacts of fishing.

Challenges

In order to ensure its continuing sustainable operation this fishery made a commitment to improving its performance where it scored between 60-80. Some of the conditions the fishery has committed to are:  

• the development of an appropriate monitoring program to collect reliable size composition data from the fishery and to monitor changes in annual age/size composition and sex ratio. This condition should be met by 2010.
• the development of a process (such as risk assessment), in collaboration with the relevant agencies and ecological experts, to identify specific habitats that may be at risk of physical impacts (disturbance) from the fishery or its operations, then, if any moderate or higher level risks are identified, establish any relevant further investigations or mitigation procedures, practices etc that may be agreed between relevant agencies, experts and the fishery.
• improving the understanding of by-catch and any impacts on non-target species, and once this understanding is improved, introduce
  specific management measures to address any issues.
  
  

The fishery: Unit of certification

The certified Lakes and Coorong, South Australia fishery is defined as:

Surveillance 3: Completed July 2011

Surveillance Report No.3 - 12th July 2011

Stakeholder Notification: Surveillance audit planned - 21st April 2011

Surveillance 2: Completed July 2010

Surveillance Report No.2 - 22nd July 2010

Stakeholder Notification: Surveillance audit planned - 29th April 2010

Surveillance 1: Completed November 2009

Surveillance Report No.1 - 2nd November 2009

Certificates: Compliance with the MSC Principles and Criteria for Sustainable fishing

Certificate of compliance MFCP-F-0075 - Valid 15th June 2008 to 14th April 2013

2Stage 7: Public certification report and certificate issue

Public certification report - 13 June 2008

Stakeholder Notification: Public certification report and certificate issued -13 June 2008

Stage 6: Final report and determination

Final report and determination - 25 February 2008

Stakeholder Notification: Final report and determination - 25 February 2008

Stage 5: Public review of the draft assessment report

Public comment draft report

Stakeholder Notification: Public comment draft report released

Stage 4: Client and peer review

Stakeholder Notification: Peer reviewers confirmed

Stakeholder Notification: Peer reviewers proposed

Stage 3: Information gathering, stakeholder meetings and scoring

Stakeholder Notification: Site visits scheduled

Stage 2: Building the assessment tree

Final assessment tree

Draft assessment tree

Stakeholder Notification: Draft assessment tree released for comment

Stage 1: Fishery announcement and assessment team formation

Stakeholder Notification: Assessment team announced

Stakeholder Notification: Assessment team nominated

Stakeholder Notification: Fishery enters full assessment

Southern Fisherman's Association

Garry Hera-Singh
President

PO Box 263
Meningie 5264, South Australia
Australia

Tel. +61 (0)8 8575 1680
Fax. +61 (0)8 8575 1664
gicahera@lm.net.au

Certification Body

Scientific Certification Systems, Inc.

2200 Powell Street, Suite 600
Emeryville,
California 94608,
USA

Contact: Sabine Daume
Mail: sdaume@scscertified.com
Phone: +1 510 452 6388

www.scscertified.com