Southern Calamari are important to multiple commercial and community fishery sectors in SA. Southern Calamari are now managed using a TACC for the commercial MSF and have specified resource allocations for recreational, Aboriginal/Traditional, Charter Boat, GSV prawn and SG prawn fisheries. However, the current assessment program does not capture the importance of this species and cannot support the level of management required. The primary outcome of this project will be to develop an assessment program for Southern Calamari in SA that can be used to assign stock status and provide TACC setting advice to fisheries management.

Like many cephalopod assessments, the current SA Southern Calamari assessment is basic as scientific advances have not occurred at the same rate as advances for finfish or crustacean assessment methods. Therefore, the successful development of an assessment program for Southern Calamari in SA would provide a valuable scientific contribution to several other Australian squid fisheries as they often encounter similar assessment difficulties

Overcoming key knowledge gaps and incorporating information on environmental drivers will be a key focus of this project, in order to develop an assessment that accounts for the full complexity of cephalopod population dynamics. However, there are limited resources to undertake an assessment in SA as the commercial MSF has a low gross value product (GVP) but has high assessment needs across several species. Therefore, a cost-effective assessment program must be developed to allow for its regular application, which is necessary for short lived species such as Southern Calamari.

The proposed project will address two FRDC strategic plan outcomes (Growth for enduring prosperity, and best practices and production systems) by developing a best practice assessment program that can be applied for Southern Calamari in SA and be extended for use in other fishery jurisdictions. An assessment program that provides confident management advice, such as TACC setting, will maximise resource use across all sectors by establishing a robust stock assessment that increases certainty in stock abundance and allows sustainable fishing strategies to be developed.

We propose a multi-stage project that will cumulate in a feasibility study that directly addresses the identified research priority, namely of understanding how spat seeding could enhance NSW’s pipi stocks. Our proposal will provide detailed information towards FRDC’s strategic outcome 1 (Growth for enduring prosperity) and strategic outcome 2 (Best practices and production systems). This project would benefit all states with existing and emerging pipi fisheries.

Developing cost-effective techniques that can enhance wild capture fisheries offers industry greater surety of catch and even fishery growth potential as inter-annual variation and longer-term catch trends can be managed. In turn, stock enhancement can lead to greater economic security to industry. Indeed, feedback from pipi fishers in NSW and VIC has emphasised how the current high variability in catch coming from a low catch base greatly impacts their capacity to supply customers and make positive longer-term business decisions. Fishery enhancement can also play a vital role in helping to manage the ecological impacts of wild harvest as stock depletion is less likely to occur. Our proposal explicitly includes an assessment of regulatory frameworks and biosecurity regulations to help facilitate the sustainable implementation of any proposed large-scale pipi seeding.

After many years of interest but little on ground activity apart from a few established operations based on the harvest of beach-cast material, the seaweed industry is starting to gain momentum in southern Australia. There is particular interest in the farming of Asparagopsis for its methane reducing properties in ruminants, but also in several species for human consumption and other uses, including the golden kelp Ecklonia radiata. While much of the focus is on the development of an aquaculture industry, this needs to be supported by the wild harvest of seedstock, at least in the early years, and there is also some interest in wild-harvest for product. However, the knowledge base and tools available for managers to regulate this emerging industry are limited. This proposal aims to start filling in some of these gaps. The first is to develop an understanding of the biomass present in targeted areas, and importantly, the development of a rapid assessment tool to do this, which can then be used to form the basis of a stock assessment methodology as the industry expands. The second is to develop harvest methodologies that allow for the recovery of local stocks, and which can be used to inform rotational harvest strategies by documenting how long recovery takes. The third is to develop an understanding of some of the biosecurity issues likely to be faced by industry and regulators, which will allow managers to make informed decisions around translocation policies to both prevent the spread of disease, and to maintain the genetic integrity of natural populations.

Commercial in confidence. To know more about this project please contact FRDC.