Western Australian (WA) fishing rules are already in place on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (CKI), were not designed specifically for the unique CKI region, and do not take into account Cocos Malay customs.

Following extensive community consultation and feedback on the strong interest from the Christmas Island (CI) and Cocos Keeling Islands (CKI) communities in local management and self-regulation, the Australian Government will work in collaboration with the CKI and CI communities to develop a model of fisheries management that delivers a regulatory framework fit for purpose in the IOT.

Under any potential approach, it will be critical that communities continue to practise sustainable fishing and work together with the Government to implement a model which secures the IOT fishing future.

The Australian Government will support further research of local fisheries stocks to inform management frameworks, which will include community input.

Documents

Ordinance

• Exposure Draft: Cocos (Keeling) Islands Applied Laws Amendment (Fish Resource Management) Ordinance 2020 PDF: 447 KB 
• Exemptions for passionfruit coral trout PDF: 12 KB 
• Exemptions for Cocos Malay culture PDF: 11 KB 
• Exemptions for selling recreational fish PDF: 11 KB 

Fact sheets

• English PDF: 4156 KB 
• Cocos Malay PDF: 4157 KB 
• Service Delivery Arrangements - Fisheries services
  • English PDF: 238 KB 
  • Cocos Malay PDF: 255 KB 

Frequently asked questions

• English PDF: 675 KB 
• Cocos Malay PDF: 676 KB 

Research papers

• A Sustainable Future for Rec Fishing in the CKI (2005) PDF: 316 KB 
• Review of Exploitation of IOT Resources (2010) PDF: 509 KB 
• Summary of Invertebrate Research (2006-2011) PDF: 2002 KB 
• Modelling habitat associations of 14 species of holothurians from an unfished coral atoll: implication or fisheries management (2011) PDF: 399 KB 
• Modelling habitat associations of the common spider conch in the CKI (2011) PDF: 378 KB 
• An update of the Department of Fisheries, WA, Invertebrate and Reef Monitoring at CKI (2016) PDF: 1649 KB 
• The state of Western Australia’s coral reefs (2019) PDF: 945 KB 
• Invertebrate and Reef Health Research and Monitoring at CKI (2019) PDF: 2552 KB 
• Examining the movement of the common spider conch Lambis Lambis in shallow water of a northeastern Indian Ocean Atoll using passive acoustic tracking (2020) PDF: 1141 KB 

Public consultation

• Community Feedback – Fisheries public consultations Cocos (Keeling) Islands PDF: 264 KB