Aquatic Sector Update
Changes are on the horizon for how ornamental fish are imported and managed in Australia. PIAA is working behind the scenes to represent your interests.
PIAA last week attended in Canberra, several high-level meetings to discuss proposed changes to the management and importation of ornamental fish in Australia.
Please read on if you want more details, otherwise know that PIAA is always working behind the scenes to protect the aquarium industry and your businesses right to continue to keep, breed and sell aquarium fish.
In summary the meetings were productive, with some small wins and even gains on the horizon. However, there are also many other areas of concern that remain ongoing and active issues, that we must continue to stay across to ensure negative outcomes do not occur.
As always, if you are not yet a PIAA member, you really need to be. Thank you for those who do support what we do with your membership. To those that don’t, we can only continue to properly represent the industry with your support.
Please contact me if you need any further info or want to talk about any of the below issues and how this may affect your business.
New proposed Nature Positive legislation
Discussions with department of environment (DCCEEW) regarding new Nature Positive legislation to replace the EPBC act. We have been invited to help shape the draft legislation and ensure new policy objectives not cause unnecessary regulatory harm to live imports. In general, they are not making things easier for us and instead the screws only ever get tighter. Please see below for more detailed info
The Nature positive legislation will place greater emphasis on more rigorous environmental risk assessments on import applications needing to provide greater certainty around potential detrimental effects on an imported species in its native country as well as any possible harm it may cause to Australian ecosystems and species, should it be released and establish in the wild.
Given the above, we are now seeing a far greater emphasis placed on a species IUCN red list status, this is a list that assigns a status from least concern all the way through to critically endangered. Any species listed as vulnerable, threatened, endangered, or critically endangered in the wild, moving forward, will only be able to be imported as certified captive bred specimens. We are broadly supportive on ensuring the actions of the aquarium trade don’t lead to a species extinction, the devil lies in the detail of the proposed additional layer of import permits that will now be required. Applications for species that fit the above criteria will now be added to part 2 of the allowable import list, not part one. This will mean DCCEEW import permits will have to be issued for such species before they can be legally imported. We are working with the wildlife permits team at DCCEEW to create a permit process that is as simple and navigable as possible and minimise red tape. Further discussions on this will follow. We did get a win however with the DCCEEW officials agreeing to only apply the new processes above to new species applications and not to retrospectively apply to the current import list.
The same DCCEEW Nature Positive act will also change the way CITES coral fisheries are regulated both for domestic and export trade with greater emphasis on traceability and a greater evidentiary burden to prove no harm and non-detriment of the coral fishery on the reef.
The Grey list (Everything that is kept, bred and traded but not approved for live import)
Representation on the Aquatic Vertebrate and Invertebrate Working Group to determine how the1200+ species that are currently traded but not approved for import will be regulated into the future. Without PIAA, we would likely lose the vast majority of them from the trade. DCCEEW confirmed that the new Nature positive act would contain a part 3 list of species that may provide a pathway to list grey listed species in part 3. This would recognise their legal status in Australia but still not allow them to be imported. Importantly this process would only apply to low-risk species. More risk assessment work of grey list species is underway as the previous SARDI risk assessment work has been rejected (it didn’t suit their narrative as over 400 of the 460 species assessed were deemed low risk)
DAFF –Biosecurity meeting- Captive Bred Marine fish Imports.
Ongoing discussions with DAFF over pending approval to allow legal captive bred marine fish. After waiting over 10 years, we have finally been advised that an import risk assessment into allowing captive bred marine fish has finally been completed. DAFF will release this report for a public consultation sometime late April, early May for a 60-day period where you can submit comments in support of or against the recommendation. Without pre-empting the report’s recommendations, we are led to believe the outcome will be positive in providing a green light to facilitate legal captive bred marine imports. There are however a couple of species of fish that may be problematic, presenting an unacceptable disease vector, that will likely need to have their import approval suspended. These species are not of high commercial value in any case. In the climate of ever-increasing pressure and scrutiny on wild caught fish, the above outcome would be a sensible approach and allow the marine fish to continue to develop and commercialise captive breeding programs.
DAFF Meeting Megalocytivirus – Gourami Iridovirus
We have been notified of some Iridovirus detections reported to DAFF last November found in imported fish post boarder quarantine. This raises concerns within DAFF that existing disease-free certification is perhaps not adequate. They are commencing a review over the coming year and may begin a new program of post arrival random testing to confirm if indeed Gourami Iridovirus is being imported. This is the begin of a process that will take them another year or two to develop recommendations.
Some of you may remember the huge controversy back in 2010 when this issue first reared its head. The proposal at the time was for onshore batch testing of ALL incoming gourami’s, cichlids and livebearers which would have seen as many as 50% of imported fish surrendered for PCR testing, the testing is lethal to the fish. It was only through PIAA representing the industry we managed to negotiate offshore disease-free certification as the way to move forward.
Unfortunately, the issue is now on the radar again and we will be working closely with DAFF to allay their concerns and again find a way forward that doesn’t cripple fish imports.
CITES workshop on ornamental reef fish trade Brisbane 2024
PIAA have been invited by Ornamental Fish International (OFI) to participate in a CITES workshop to be held this May in Brisbane. The focus of the workshop will be to discuss a proposal to declare all reef fish endangered and add them to a relevant CITES appendix. This will have the instant affect of prohibiting ALL trade in wild caught reef fish. While the trade internationally in captive bred species would in theory be able to continue, in practice the burden of permits, microchipping for traceability and the associated compliance would render all marine fish trade almost impossible.
The cites workshop will see delegates from Governments and NGOS from all over the world attend. The NGO’s proposing the CITES listing use the logic that reefs are shrinking and declared as endangered, so by extension reef fish that rely of reefs, should by extension also be endangered and their trade prohibited by CITES.
The workshop has been scheduled in May and will unfortunately clash with interzoo in Germany(perhaps by design) meaning many of the usual people who would represent the worldwide trade are unavailable. This will have the unfortunate consequence of seeing the ornamental fish trade outnumbered, 20 to one by governments and NGO’s who have an ingrained philosophical objection to all animal uses by humans.
PIAA obviously supports sustainability in our industries actions and doesn’t want to see the ornamental fish trade responsible to the demise of a single fish species. We will however not stand by and see our great industry and hobby sacrificed because it makes those that think they are saving the world feel good about themselves. As always there will be a commonsense approach that should be adopted that can both achieve protection of those species that need it, whilst ensuring reputable operators in the aquarium industry can continue to thrive.