Operate a vessel tracking unit

Safety and maintenance

• Comply with the vessel tracking installation and maintenance standard when maintaining vessel tracking equipment.
• Contact your unit provider for safety standard certification documentation.
• Notify Workplace Health and Safety Queensland immediately in the case of a work-related death, serious injury or illness, or dangerous incident.
• Notify the Electrical Safety Office immediately in the case of a serious electrical incident or dangerous electrical event.

Spare units

Talk to your unit provider about the option of adding the spare unit to your existing polling account in case your primary unit fails.

If you carry a spare unit as a back-up, you may need to allow time for the spare unit to be activated by the unit provider.

Transfer units

You can move your vessel tracking units between:

• primary and tender boats
• primary commercial fishing licences held by the same licence holder (i.e. same client name).

This must be registered in FishNet Secure:

• when the unit is moved between licences or boats
• and
• before fishing.

You must get approval from Fisheries Queensland to move a unit between primary commercial fishing licences held by different people. To request approval:

• email vesseltracking@daf.qld.gov.au
• phone 13 25 23.

If a unit malfunctions during a trip

If a vessel tracking unit malfunctions during a commercial fishing operation, the commercial fisher in control of the operation must meet these reporting requirements.

Primary boat unit

If the vessel tracking unit is on the primary boat, you must:

• manually report the position of the primary boat by AIVR or Qld eFisher app:
• every hour, while fishing or steaming (east coast trawl fishery only)
• every 4 hours, while fishing or steaming (all other fisheries).
• return to port or landing place within 5 days from the day the malfunction is identified.

If you cannot return to port within 5 days, you must phone or email Fisheries QLD to:

• apply for an extension of time to travel to a port
• and
• provide a valid reason as to why you can't meet the 5-day requirement.

T1 and T2 fisheries that operate within the major scallop area must ensure the boat travels to a landing place as soon as practicable. They cannot manually report or continue to commercially fish.

Tender boat unit

If the malfunctioning unit is on a tender boat, the tender boat must:

• remain attached to the primary boat
• and
• not be used to take any fish for the remainder of the trip.

If the unit starts working again

If the vessel tracking unit starts operating again, you can resume your fishing operation once you confirm the unit is polling.

If the unit is on a primary boat, the requirement to return to port no longer applies.

Legislation

For all vessel tracking requirements, refer to:

• Fisheries Act 1994
• Fisheries (General) Regulation 2019
• Fisheries (Commercial Fisheries) Regulation 2019.