The draft Harvest Strategy Policy for Tasmanian Wild Fisheries and Implementation Guidelines are now available for public consultation.
They align with the National Guidelines to develop fishery harvest strategies and outline a proposed framework for how NRE Tas develops harvest strategies for different Tasmanian fisheries. It outlines elements such as:
- what should be included in a harvest strategy,
- how the community and stakeholders will contribute to the development of fisheries specific harvest stategies, and
- which fisheries will have harvest strategies developed in the next ten years.
What is a harvest strategy?
Harvest strategies are commonly used throughout Australia and other parts of the world as a framework for sustainable fisheries management.
One of the big challenges in fisheries management is responding to changes in fish stocks quickly and in a way that appropriately considers all the different stakeholders that play a role in a fishery.
Harvest strategies help address this challenge by pre-determining what management actions should be taken in response to fisheries hitting certain performance indicator levels.
A harvest strategy brings together the objectives and interests of all stakeholders in a fishery. These perspectives are then used to identify a vision for the fishery and establish what actions should be taken to achieve this vision.
Harvest strategies are considered a best-practice approach to fishery management and have several benefits. They:
- promote more transparent, predictable, and timely decisions on harvest levels
- can lead to stability in the fishery which supports longer term thinking and planning by fishers
- enhance stewardship through consultative strategy development
- improve community confidence in fishing
- improve responsiveness to potential ecological, economic, social and cultural impacts on each fishery
- improve transparency in fisheries status reporting
Public consultation closes on the 21st April 2023.