Australia’s small-scale commercial fisheries might be small in terms of their catch, but they have a big impact on the economic and social fabric of local communities, according to new research into the Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery.
In the waters surrounding Tasmania’s coastline, 117 commercial fishers actively operate in the Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery (TSF).
Collectively, TSF fishers generated $6.3 million in direct and value-added income for the Tasmanian economy in 2020-21 and almost all of that was spent directly within their local communities.
These are some of the findings from an FRDC-funded project (2018-067) identifying the socio-economic characteristics of the TSF and opportunities to improve its viability and profitability.
The TSF catch contributes to the supply of fresh fish for consumers at local markets, including live fish markets, and provides diverse income and livelihood strategies for fishery participants says Dr Emily Ogier.
Based at University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Emily has led this project, that included surveys of almost 30 per cent of participants in the fishery. The project also incorporated data on fishery regulations, logbooks and administrative data on licensing and landings matched to catches.
A range of fishers
The results showed a great diversity among the fishery participants, leading to different fisher profiles:
- Part-time fishers, who have another non-fishing job or occupation;
- Full-time fishers dedicated to the TSF; and
- Diversified fishers, who fish full-time in other fisheries as well as the TSF
Fishing strategies across these groups vary, and include:
- Low-volume fishers, targeting either small volumes of high-value species or using gear with lower productivity.
- High-volume fishers, using a diverse range of gear and targeting a diverse range of species with high efficiency, or opportunistically targeting high-abundance species such as Jack Mackerel (Trachurus sp.) and Gould’s Squid (Nototodarus gouldi).
“There is a core of 60 dedicated fishers, who earn most of their income from this fishery. Of those with other sources of income, many put more effort for less financial return into their fishing endeavours, compared with their other work,” says Emily.
This diversity in fisher profiles show the richness of services the fishery provides to the Tasmanian community both socially and through different supply and value chains.
“But the diversity also made it more challenging to identify what greater viability and economic performance looks like, because these fishers have different goals and different aspirations and needs in the fishery.”
Collaboration opportunities and constraints
Looking at opportunities for greater collaboration among the sector, she says partnerships between fishers and processors are already happening at a small scale, but opportunities for wider collaboration across the fishery, were limited.
“We found that improved marketing, branding or product development needed to focus on some specialist products and supply chains rather than a general fishery-wide style of marketing strategy,” says Emily.
Examples of specialty lines already being developed include Snook (Sphyraena novaehollandiae) and smoked Australian Salmon (Arripis sp.) products. Longer-term collaborations have also seen prices for octopus and Southern Calamari increase over time.
In fact, the success of marketing strategies for Southern Calamari (Sepioteuthis australis) highlights one of the issues of most concern to TSF fishers: latent effort.
The latent effort issue
When a species finds market success, latent licences are activated with a concentration of effort on that species which then leads to separate licences to restrict effort and ensure the sustainability of the stock, as has happened with Southern Calamari. While there are about 60 dedicated fishers in the TSF – mostly owner-operators, there are almost as many fishers who do not fish to the full extent of their licences.
Emily says the licensing regime within the TSF is complex, and tensions within the fishery are real.
Many of the generalist fishers are experts at knowing when and where to fish for different species at different times of year, and to meet changing market demand. The general licences themselves offer important flexibility for this multi-species, multi-gear fishery covering more than 40 species.
Effort is largely managed through input controls, such as limited entry closed seasons and gear restrictions. Output controls, such as minimum and maximum size limits and trip limits, are also used. Most licences in the fishery are transferrable. Entry is more limited only for a small number of now high-value species.
This means many fishers can be active in the TSF at different times, for example during 2021 a higher number of rock lobster fishers – whose licences gave them access to the TSF – switched to higher levels of effort in this fishery to supplement lower incomes from their usual, lobster fishing. Some TSF licence holders feel the relative accessibility of the TSF reduces the value of their investment in the fishery and makes future investment more challenging.
A fisher’s perspective
Nick Martin is one of those concerned about latent effort, and the complexity of the licensing in the fishery. Based at St Helens in Tasmania’s northeast, Nick swapped from dairy farming to go all-in as a commercial fisher in the TSF 12 years ago.
He has two vessels, one larger boat that caters for live fish as well as the regular catch, and a second smaller vessel for shorter trips. He has five licences for his larger boat, and two for the smaller one. “It’s really frustrating that the licences are attached to a vessel, that is not the case in other fisheries,” he says. “I’d really like to see that changed; it would certainly help to improve the viability of my operations.”
Tasmanian Scalefish Fisher Nick Martin with a catch of Tasmanian Flathead (Platycephalus sp.).
Despite the complexities of the regulations, he remains positive about his fishing future. The live fish market represented 70 per cent of his income before it collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, prices for other fresh fish boomed as pandemic restrictions rolled out to offset this, and those prices remain comparatively high today. Demand for live fish has also picked up post-COVID, and Nick says his income is currently split 50:50 between two markets.
Lessons for small-scale fisheries
For FRDC research program manager Dr Toby Piddocke the findings of this project offer insight into a specific Tasmanian fishery, but he says they could well be representative of other small-scale fisheries around Australia.
“I think in a lot of ways the results are quite heartening. It shows that the fishers are highly skilled and efficient although there’s not a lot of opportunity for them to increase their catch without a major investment in new equipment.
“It also shows their economic and social contribution and the skill and resilience of operators in quite difficult economic and regulatory environments. “This kind of research helps to better value small-scale fisheries make to communities in which they operate,” he says.
Related project
FRDC Project: 2018-067
This relates to R&D Plan Outcomes 1, 2 and 4
