Queensland Fisheries Compliance Strategy

Fisheries compliance is a key element in maintaining sustainable fisheries. Fisheries resources and fish habitats are highly valued by the community in Queensland, so it’s important they are managed sustainably for the future.

The Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol (QBFP) enforces fisheries and boating safety laws through surveillance and inspection, as well as undertaking related education with industry and community groups.

The Queensland Fisheries Compliance Strategy (PDF, 904.9KB) outlines:

  • principles underpinning QBFP’s role
  • how compliance services are delivered to the Queensland community.

Vision

Our compliance activities undertaken aim to achieve optimal levels of compliance supporting sustainable fisheries in Queensland.

The optimal level of compliance holds the level of non-compliance at an acceptable level, which can be maintained at a reasonable cost while not compromising the integrity of fisheries management or ecological sustainability, and ensuring ongoing social licence and legitimacy.

This optimal level of compliance is achieved by:

  • maximising voluntary compliance through education and media engagement
  • effective deterrence through monitoring and enforcement activities
  • organisational capacity and capability to respond and adapt to changing circumstances.

Principles

  • Principle 1: Compliance with the Fisheries Act and subordinate legislation is mandatory.
  • Principle 2: Establish partnerships with stakeholders, including other government agencies, to maximise compliance.
  • Principle 3: Foster community support for fisheries legislation by consulting widely when policy and legislation is developed, and through continued communication and provision of information.
  • Principle 4: A higher standard of compliance is expected of persons taking publicly owned resources for trade or commerce (for commercial purposes).
  • Principle 5: Enforcement responses are undertaken in a fair, impartial, consistent, transparent, lawful and cost-efficient manner. The degree and type of enforcement action taken will be proportionate to the nature and severity of the offences.
  • Principle 6: Community cooperation by reporting suspected violations of fisheries legislation is encouraged and promoted.

Legislation

We develop and apply principles and procedures to ensure that fisheries legislation is enforced in a manner that is fair, transparent, consistent and achieves an optimal level of compliance.

QBFP’s primary responsibility is to deliver compliance services under the:

Last updated: 16 Apr 2024