Sustainability notes

This is an overview of how the Lakes and Coorong, South Australia fishery scored in assessment against the MSC standard. 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. 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.