One of the barriers to the development of large-scale aquaculture in Western Australia has been the legislative regime for environmental approvals. Due to the lack of any explicit direction detailing information requirements crucial for assessment purposes, applications often experience significant delays in gaining approval to commence operations or to up-scale to more commercial volumes.
The Department of Fisheries (DoF), Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), industry representatives and licensees recognised that a duplication and overlap in the environmental assessment of aquaculture existed. This prompted a review of environmental legislation by DEC in 2005. Aquaculture activities in general are low risk and regulations are now being amended to totally preclude aquaculture activities from the requirement to be separately environmentally licensed by DEC.
