The fishing and the oil/gas industries have rights to operate their respective businesses in the marine environment. At sea, there is a degree of spatial/temporal overlap between marine seismic activity and established fishing grounds. For shared access to work effectively, a high level of respect, cooperation, communication, coordination and compromise is required between industries.

With some notable exceptions, many fishing operators in areas of high offshore prospectivity report this doesn’t always occur. They feel as a result, their businesses are negatively impacted, with little if any recognition by the oil/gas industry. Importantly this does not only relate directly to loss of catch, possibly arising from seismic activity, but to disruptions at an operational and business level including; time and resources to input into the process, reduction of fishing opportunities during peak/open seasons and marketing/staffing issues (onshore and offshore) due to unplanned variations in fishing activity. Oil and gas explorers also report that interactions can negatively impact on their operations at high cost.

These issues were highlighted at a FRDC supported ‘Empowering’ workshop in 2011 attended by the fishing and oil/gas industries, agencies and researchers. It was agreed that a project designed to examine and improve processes and policies to minimise impacts of seismic surveys on operations and businesses was a priority.

Since then, National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) was established. This authority is the national regulator for a range of offshore oil and gas operations, including environmental management.

DPI Vic indicated the project approach is a long time coming and stressed the need for discussions before exploration leases are released, the benefits in educating both sectors on impacts of their activities on the other and the value this will provide in forward planning for both sectors to minimise negative interactions and optimise efficiency and profitability.

The Research Subcommittee of the Standing Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture (SCFA) has been developing a national approach to the implementation of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) in fisheries. Recently, Environment Australia (EA) has proposed changes to Schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act in which the general exemption of commercial fish species from Schedule 4 be removed. It will be a requirement that "species are taken in a manner that is demonstrably ecologically sustainable" before being given an exemption from the Act. EA has developed a draft set of criteria for assessing sustainability of commercial fisheries. SCFA has formed a Sustainability Indicators Working Group to coordinate a national response. The Research Subcommittee presented a workplan for developing sustainability indicators to this Group on October 15. This was endorsed by SCFA on 26 October 1999.

These national initiatives should also been seen within the context of international developments such as FAO's 'Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries'and 'Guidelines for Developing Indicators for Sustainable Development for Wild Capture Fisheries', the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) 'Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing' and ISO 14000. A number of Australian fisheries have expressed interest in obtaining MSC accreditation.

The interaction of fisheries and the environment including increased scrutiny of the industry by environment groups, MSC and Schedule 4, was one of the main themes at the recent Seafood Directions Conference.

Its against this background of major developments by a range of agencies, both national and international, that this workshop is proposed. To effectively implement ESD in fisheries will require a partnership between all stakeholders. The proposed workshop is endorsed by SCFA. It is consistent with the workplan developed by the Research Subcommittee. It is the first step to ensuring all participants are aware of all the issues, speak the same language and take ownership of the process. The workshop will identify stakeholder priorities and proved the basis for an action plan addressing these priorities.

The workshop will replace an FRDC-sponsored workshop which was scheduled to be held during 1999. It will be held in conjunction with the International Seafood Fair to be held at Geelong in March 2000.