There is a need to develop capacity within industry in order to progress future co-management initiatives in the Bass Strait Central Zone Scallop Fishery (BSCZSF). Central to future co-management initiatives will be industry’s ability to collect data in a systematic and scientific manner that is robust and reliable to inform management decision making. Industry needs to be trained to coordinate and collect data. This data may also deliver cost savings when compared to the current pre-season biomass surveys.
The unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced industry and management to review existing research and management processes to ensure the on-going viability Australia’s fishing industry. Whilst the scallop fishery has to date been largely shielded from the impacts (a seasonal effect) there is tremendous uncertainty about the coming fishing year and markets. There is now a need to re-think the data collection processes for this fishery and provide the industry with the opportunity and capacity, under a co-management approach, to cost-effectively collect data to inform management decisions.
The coming season provides the perfect opportunity for the first steps into a new co-management paradigm. The biomass in western Bass Strait waters are significant, with many in the industry saying it’s the highest in over 40 years of fishing. Based on the 2019 TAC, the maximum harvest fraction last season was less than 9% of the surveyed biomass, noting it was even lower, as the TAC remained under-caught. Furthermore AFMA have recently announced that the formal pre-season biomass estimation survey will not proceed in 2020 due the uncertainties surrounding the impacts of COVID-19.
This project will investigate industry’s capacity to coordinate in-season biomass surveys and provide the opportunity for industry to understand the requirements to undertake formal scientific studies.
All Australian abalone harvest strategies use empirical approaches heavily supported by CPUE based indicators that reflect tensions between producing harvest strategies that work at both larger management scales and that account for local scale population dynamics. All harvest strategies apply a weight of evidence approach that is generally not clearly codified. However, the different harvest strategies lead to very disparate ways of setting catches, with some adjusting catch based on relative performance of indicators, while others assume a direct relationship between CPUE and sustainable catch. These contrasting approaches have developed despite managing essentially the same group of species caught with the same gear type and from similar reef environments. This project will therefore test each of the presently used harvest strategies to draw out their strengths and weaknesses in a common platform.
Only the Victorian Western Zone and Tasmanian harvest strategies have been simulation tested. The MSE models used in each, due to funding and time constraints, have been developed in a way that means that portability across jurisdiction is time consuming and costly. As such, this project will address the need to write MSE code that will be usable for the future and in other jurisdictions. It will then test this code on two abalone stocks, one blacklip and one greenlip, to assist in this need for code generality. The final product will be freely available on a version control site such as GitHub with detailed guides on how it is best used.
Giant Crabs are a long, lived, slow reproducing xanthoid crab distributed from southern Western Australia to central New South Wales that are considered to be a single stock across southern Australia.
The giant crab fishery (GCF) across southern Australia has a small tonnage of large, individually valuable animals. Despite the implementation of harvest strategies and management plans guiding the setting of conservative TACC’s, declining trends are evident across the shared Southern Australian resource.
The fishery has had ongoing problems collecting quality stock assessment data, leading to uncertainty in the assessment and management. Owing to the size of the fishery, and the remote nature of the fishing operations, assessments now rely on fisher dependant catch rate data with an inherent high level of volatility due to the small number of operators.
Attempts to improve the collection of fishery data over the years have been challenging, in particular for fisher-based collection of length-frequency data from volunteer measuring programs.
Innovative data collection methods for small scale fisheries such as the GCF are required to improve the monitoring of stock status of this important commercial fishery and enhance long-term sustainability of the Giant Crab resource.
A length based model has previously been developed and was designed to integrate assessments across the jurisdictions. The model for giant crab and was being used for South Australia and Tasmania but was not applied to Victoria due to data limitations. In recent years the modelling has discontinued in SA and Tas because of insufficient length frequency data, which compounded uncertainty present due to weak growth data. The lack of length data in previous years was the critical change that has forced the model to be discontinued.
So our ability to understand changes in the stock has become weakest at precisely the period in the history of the fishery when information is most needed. This project is designed specifically in response to this need to address the lack of data through development of an efficient method to collect LF information, with minimal burden on fishers to improve accuracy of stock assessments.
Stock enhancement and restocking of marine species is an ever-evolving field given the development of new technology and pressures put on species by factors such as fishing, environment and disease. In Australia there have been several large-scale experimental abalone projects conducted, primarily in NSW and WA, with promising results and conclusions. However, these research projects have cost just over $1.7 million and none of the outcomes have translated into commercial-scale abalone stock enhancement, restocking or translocation. Even so, there is still considerable and continuing interest in stocking where stocks are so depleted as to render recovery without intervention impossible. The question is therefore, why do very few ideas/proposals progress to R&D projects and none have progressed to commercialisation?
This project will review abalone stocking in Australia and jurisdictions current strategic direction and management policies. Through this, potential roadblocks to the commercialisation of abalone stocking in Australia, such as government policy, scientific research, aquaculture practices, genetics and biosecurity/disease will be investigated. At present there is no formal abalone stocking programmes being conducted in Australia, even with the stock declines present in numerous fisheries. However, several major projects have been proposed and the interest in stocking as a fisheries management tool has remained high with substantial investments made. A national approach to abalone stocking will allow regulatory bodies to decide on appropriate stocking programmes and for industry to have confidence in the benefits for the fishery.
Provides the opportunity to showcase the management arrangements in the Spencer Gulf Prawn Fishery (SGPF) and expand the knowledge base of the applicant in relation to contemporary management arrangements in fisheries globally.
As the Fishery Manager of the SGPF Mr Shanks has a strong personal interest in the future sustainability of the SGPF. He has implemented management arrangements in the SGPF that now permit Officers of the SGWCPFA to set through a legal instrument the area and timing that fishing is undertaken over. This is the only example in Australia where management arrangements permitting industry to self-regulate have been implemented.
The experience and knowledge associated with explaining and seeking views on the management arrangements implemented in the SGPF is invaluable to PIRSA and the SGWCPFA.
