Fisheries Scientific Committee

**Fisheries Scientific Committee** The Fisheries Scientific Committee is an independent body established under Part 7A of the *Fisheries Management Act 1994*. The main functions of the Committee are related to: - the listing of species, populations, ecological communities and key threatening processes in the schedules of the *Fisheries Management Act 1994*; - advising the Minister on the identification of critical habitat; - reviewing draft joint management agreements and the performance of parties under the agreements; - Advising the Director-General on the exercise of Department of Primary Industries functions under threatened species legislation of the *Fisheries Management Act 1994*; and - Advising the Minister and the Natural Resources Commission on matters relating to the conservation of threatened species, populations or ecological communities. The Committee consists of seven scientists, with expertise in the biology of fish, aquatic invertebrates and marine vegetation; population dynamics, aquatic ecology and genetics of small populations.