The Australian wild abalone industry contributes $200 million annually to the national economy and directly employs an estimated 1,650 people across 5 States (NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia). Over 99 percent of production is exported, primarily to north East Asia....

Ecologically sustainable development (ESD) has been accepted as the foundation for the management of natural resources in Australia since 1992, when the National Strategy for ESD was released. ESD was specifically identified as an objective of fisheries management in the 1991 Commonwealth Fisheries...