Why prepare environmental impact statements?
The community has become more aware and is scrutinising the potential impact that fishing activities have on the environment. There are also legal requirements, under both State and Commonwealth legislation, for the environmental impact of fishing activities to be assessed. It is widely accepted that in most cases the best way of assessing the impact of fishing activity is by considering the total impact of fishing, instead of the potentially minor impacts of individual fishers. For this reason environmental impact statements are prepared for whole fisheries, not when each individual licence is issued or renewed. The NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 was amended in December 2000 and now contains specific provisions requiring environmental impact statements to be prepared for each of the State’s significant fisheries. Additionally the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 requires a person to who undertakes a new action that has the
