In essence, this amendment replicates the principles included in the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, so that similar criteria apply to fish and marine vegetation as apply to other biota in New South Wales (O'Connor 1999). The amendment also resulted in changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, integrating the consideration of threatened “fish” (the definition of which includes both finfish and aquatic invertebrates) and marine plant (including mangrove, seagrass and algae) conservation into the environmental planning and assessment process. Thus, the effect of a development or activity on threatened species must be considered by a consent and/or a determining authority, and where there is likely to be a significant impact, the preparation of a species impact statement (SIS) is required.

The Fisheries Management Amendment Act 1997 incorporated provisions for the listing of endangered species, endangered populations, endangered ecological communities, species presumed extinct, vulnerable species, and key threatening processes. Listing is the responsibility of a Fisheries Scientific Committee, though any person may nominate a taxon for listing. A recovery plan must be prepared for each listed species, population or community, with the aim of returning it to a position of viability in nature. Key threatening processes are processes that adversely affect two or more threatened species or which could cause a species to become threatened. A threat abatement plan must be prepared for each key threatening process listed, with the aim of managing the process in order to reduce or eliminate the threat. Draft recovery and threat abatement plans must be placed on public exhibition for community input before finalisation. Relevant recovery plans must be considered by consent and determining authorities when assessing applications for development under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

Schedule 4 contains lists of endangered species, populations and ecological communities and species presumed extinct, while Schedule 5 lists vulnerable species. To date no marine invertebrates have been listed under any category. Schedule 6 contains a list of key threatening processes; however, to date none have been listed relevant to marine environments[194].

The amending legislation also allows the Minister for Fisheries to declare ‘critical habitat’, defined as the whole or any part or parts of the area or areas of land comprising the habitat of an endangered species, population or ecological community that is critical to its survival. Once critical habitat is declared, relevant planning instruments must take note of it and any proposal under Parts 4 or 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act that is likely to affect critical habitat requires the preparation of a species impact statement (SIS).