Review of Fishery Resource Access and Allocation Arrangements Across Australian Jurisdictions

Access and allocation in Australian fisheries have been a top priority issue for fisheries managers since 2010. In that time, there has been large improvement in many aspects of fisheries management, but access and allocation remained an issue requiring attention. To guide RD&E investment in access and allocation, the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC ) requested a review of the current state of play across the various jurisdictions including all fisheries sectors (commercial, recreational, indigenous and tourism). The main output of the report was a series of recommendations relating to data collection, increase recognition and improved policies and processes relating to customary / indigenous allocation and representation, units of allocation and development of a “National Guidelines on Access and Allocation”.