ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTIES BILL, WILD MARINE FISHERIES POLICY OUT FOR COMMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTIES BILL, WILD MARINE FISHERIES POLICY OUT FOR COMMENT

• 23 October 2026
• Environmental Law
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has gazetted two sets of proposals for public comment:

• a draft National Environmental Management Laws (Administrative Penalties) Amendment Bill (input deadline 12 December 2026), and
• a draft policy for the development of new wild marine fisheries and the expansion of those already existing and regulated (input deadline 22 November 2026).

According to its covering notice, the draft National Environmental Management Laws (Administrative Penalties) Amendment Bill seeks to supplement the criminal sanctions for which provision is already made in the suite of statutes concerned by introducing a fixed and variable administrative penalty system.

In that regard, a memorandum on the draft Bill’s objects draws a distinction between broader environmental management requirements and those specific to the mineral and petroleum sector.

Against that backdrop, among other things the draft Bill seeks to:

• strengthen the powers of environmental management inspectors
• provide for the appointment of a variable administrative penalty committee
• prescribe the criteria to be used in determining the administrative penalty to be imposed, and
• provide for:
  • objections
  • the forfeiture of items seized
  • the treatment of seized live specimens, and
  • transitional arrangements.

The draft policy for the development of new wild marine fisheries and the expansion of those already existing and regulated:

• ‘is limited to wild marine fish resources’
• expressly excludes:
  • marine mammals
  • sea birds
  • seals
  • aquaculture, and
  • ‘the ranching of fish resources’
• applies to:
  • the development of new fisheries
  • exploring the viability of:
    • expanding a regulated fishery ‘in relation to geographical location’, and
    • ‘a change in approved fishing methods, techniques, gear or technologies and sample collection’, and
• prescribes exploration permit and new fishery project application and authorisation processes, procedures and criteria, including:
  • a desktop review
  • an operational plan, and
  • a fishery management plan.

The proposed new policy’s overarching objective is to ensure that all initiatives and related activities are:

• ‘scientifically informed’
• ‘ecologically sustainable’
• nationally and internationally legally compliant
• in line with constitutionally enshrined imperatives for addressing historical imbalance, and are
• underpinned by an ongoing commitment to contribute towards achieving equity across ‘all branches of the fishing industry’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• draft Bill
• draft policy

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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