Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01506:reg:2013:p17
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01506
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2013 (pt 17/32)
Character Range: 81884–84957

any individual without a permit in Commonwealth waters. However, the EPBC Act does contain certain provisions that allow an action that is reasonably necessary to prevent a risk to human health or to deal with an emergency involving a serious threat to human life. In addition, all listed threatened species are considered matters of national environmental significance, and any action that may have an impact on a matter of national environmental significance must be referred to the minister responsible for the environment
for assessment and approval.

The environmental performance of Commonwealth, state and the Northern Territory-managed wild harvest fisheries is assessed under the EPBC Act. The EPBC Act requires that:
   * all Commonwealth-managed and state wild capture marine fisheries with an export component be assessed to ensure they are being managed in an ecologically
     sustainable way
   * all Commonwealth-managed fisheries are also assessed to determine the impact of actions taken under a fishery management plan on matters of national environmental significance
   * all Commonwealth-managed fisheries and any state-managed fisheries that operate in Commonwealth waters must also be assessed to determine the impacts of fishing operations on cetaceans, listed threatened species and ecological communities, migratory species,
     and listed marine species under the EPBC Act.

The assessments consider the impacts of the relevant fishery on target and non-target species caught, and the impacts of fishing activities on the broader marine environment. As a listed threatened species, white sharks cannot be taken in fisheries in Commonwealth or state
waters. Interactions are required to be recorded in threatened species interaction logbooks
in Commonwealth fisheries and in Western Australian, South Australian, Victorian and New South Wales state fisheries. Interactions with white sharks as well as the life status of the animal when it is captured (e.g. whether it is released alive) are considered in the assessment of fisheries operating in Commonwealth waters.

Other relevant management practices include management planning processes for areas that contain breeding and/or aggregation sites for white sharks, and the incorporation of important sites into marine reserves, both at the Commonwealth (e.g. through the marine bioregional planning process) and state level. The white shark is also protected across its range in state waters. Details of the legislation under which white sharks are protected in Australian
waters are provided in the 2013 Issues Paper for the White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) (DSEWPaC, 2013).

Shark control activities are undertaken by the Queensland and New South Wales governments to protect bathers from shark attack. These states have mechanisms in place to monitor the impacts of these activities on protected species and, where possible and without compromising bather safety, reduce those impacts. Evidence from both the Queensland and New South Wales shark control programs indicates a long-term