Lease and licence variation application assessment process

Applications to vary aquaculture lease and licences undergo a risk assessment, non-legislated early notification (targeted stakeholder) consultation and referral to government agencies where required.

Early notification (targeted stakeholder) consultation

Early notification (targeted stakeholder) consultation occurs through a letter distributed to select stakeholder groups.

This is one of the initial steps in the assessment of applications and provides an opportunity for feedback on the aquaculture activities proposed under application. Feedback received is considered and evaluated as part of the ecologically sustainable development (ESD) risk assessment.

Under the Aquaculture Act 2001, public notice of an aquaculture licence application is only required for new licences. Such a notice must be published in a newspaper circulating generally in the state or on the PIRSA website, inviting written submissions to be made on the application within a specified period.

While public notice of a lease or licence variation is not required under the Aquaculture Act 2001, notice of applications may be published on the PIRSA website to allow for greater transparency on the aquaculture activities proposed and the assessment process.

Ecologically sustainable development (ESD) risk assessment

For areas within an aquaculture zone, many of the regional risks requiring assessment have been considered through the development of the relevant aquaculture zone policy (for example: the Aquaculture (Zones – Coffin Bay) Policy 2008). However, where the requirement for additional evaluation is identified, such evaluations can be made through the risk assessment process.

The risk assessment is semi-quantitative and based on a national best-practice assessment framework to determine the ecological sustainability of individual applications.

Under the Aquaculture Act 2001, development is ecologically sustainable if it is managed to ensure that communities provide for their economic, social and physical well-being while:

• natural and physical resources are maintained to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations
• biological diversity and ecological processes and systems are protected
• adverse effects on the environment are avoided, remedied or mitigated.

The integrity of the assessment process rests on understanding both the nature of the environment in which the intended aquaculture operation is practiced and the way it may interact with or change the environment surrounding it.

Following completion of the risk assessment, applications may (dependent on the results of the assessment) be referred to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to seek approval for the variation. During referral of aquaculture matters to the EPA, the EPA is required to have regard to and seek to further the objects of the Environment Protection Act 1993 and have regard to the general environmental duty and any relevant environment protection policies under that Act.

Importantly, when an application to relocate a lease and licence area is approved, standard lease conditions require lease holders to rehabilitate the former leased area within a specified period. This includes removal of all farmed aquatic organisms, aquaculture equipment and other improvements located on the leased area. Follow-up inspections are undertaken by PIRSA to ensure rehabilitation has occurred as per the conditions of the lease.