Don’t fisheries have to pass some kind of environmental test to be allowed to operate?
Sort of. Australian fisheries have to undergo an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). An EIS, as the name suggests, simply assesses potential impacts a fishery might have on the environment. This does not mean a fishery is sustainable or has low environmental impact. Some Australian fisheries are sustainable, some are not. The shark fisheries raise some serious sustainability issues. In addition to an EIS, many fisheries, including those that wish to export their products, undergo assessment under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The decision to grant a licence falls to the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment. However, even this does not guarantee the sustainability as is demonstrated by the fact that the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS) Fisheries Status Reports 2007 classified 16 stocks as ‘overfished’ or ‘subject to overfishing’, 28 as ‘not overfished’ and 52 as ‘uncertain’. The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Status of Fisher
