Harvest strategy policy and stock rebuilding for commonwealth fisheries in Australia

In response to sustainability concerns the then Australian Government Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation issued a Ministerial Direction to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to recover overfished stocks, develop a world’s best practice harvest strategy policy for Commonwealth fisheries, and investigate the use of individual transferable quotas. To meet the requirements of the Ministerial Direction it was recognised that changes to management arrangements would be significant and that the benefits arising from these changes would need to be long lasting. To adjust to this new operating environment, the Australian Government announced the ‘Securing our Fishing Future’ package at the end of 2005. The package comprised a one-off structural adjustment package and a series of new management measures.