2019-07-18 OM Agenda - Item 1 - Attachment 3 - Noosa Council Submission to State Fisheries Discussion Paper

management of the fishery. Some of the risks that are present if there is no requirement that a
minimum quota holding is applied in the net fishery are:
    Without a requirement to hold a minimum quota for the primary target species, fishers from
      other regions could move in to a region to target species not quota managed. This risks
      regionalised effort increases and weakens the regionalisation of the fishery.
    A requirement to hold a minimum amount of quota to fish ensures that when quota managed
      species are caught, the fisher has quota that permits the fish to be retained, rather than
      discarded. Without this requirement, large numbers of fishers could fish for other species, but
      catch and then discard the co-caught quota managed species. A large amount of discarding,
      which could be expected without a requirement to hold a minimum quota, seriously
      undermines the quota regime and the sustainability of the species. As the level of discarding
      is not currently known in the ECIFF, quantifying discarding (through electronic monitoring and
      reporting of discards) is a necessity to allow for discards to be included in stock assessments
      and TACC setting.
    Although it is unlikely that all net fishers will be allocated quota, a requirement to hold a
      minimum quota will reduce the number of fishing businesses able to operate within a region,
      which will increase the viability of the remaining businesses.
    Even a minimum quota holding at the start of the fishing period or when purchasing quota
      would suffice, and then a smaller minimum quota holding which is required to fish when a
      TACC is 80% fished.