All the situations mentioned above involve issues of resource-sharing between competing uses of the marine environment (commercial versus recreational fishing, fishing versus preservation, traditional fishing versus other uses, and so on).
If there is no agreed approach (methodology) to the measurement of economic value of various potential uses, there will be a major public disputes, considerable waste of resources by all parties and the tax-payers (through government expenditure), and the very real prospect of serious misallocation of fisheries resources.
The Workshop, the Steering Committee and representatives of the major sectors have identified the need to address these issues as a very high priority. If not addressed, there will be a continuation of fruitless and unresolvable disputes between the sectors.
The issues of allocation of marine resources both within and between sectors is an important plank of the Oceans Policy currently in development. The objective of the National Oceans Policy is to provide a framework for the planning, management and ecologically sustainable development of Australia's ocean resources. This project responds directly to the needs identified by the policy.
In the context of the Oceans Policy, the Marine Science and Technology Plan, presently in draft stage, has identified the need for much improved economic statistics and data for fisheries management and to properly compare uses for the marine environment. This proposal has been formulated to meet these objectives.
The Steering Commitee has identified issues associated with valuation as a high priority area,
requiring immediate attention if Australian Fisheries Statistics are to be improved. This work is essential to identifying the gaps in economic data on the seafood industry and to ensure consistency in valuation techniques across the different uses of fisheries resources.
A related need, which underpins debates in relation to the valuation of alternative use of fisheries resources is that many fisheries economists work in isolation from others in the field. As a consequence, there is often not the level of intellectual rigour in development of analysis and in interpretation of results that exists in other, similar areas, such as fish biology, where peer review is provided through the Australian Society of Fish Biologists, underpinned by an annual conference.
- To address the issues in relation to research quality management and consistency of approach it is also necessary to address the issue of developing appropriate peer review structures for such analysis in Australia.
.. There is an international organisation, the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET) which can potentially provide such support. It holds conferences biennially and has Australian representation.
