Conflicts between LCF gill net fishers and Long-nosed Fur Seals have escalated in recent years with the reported level of fur seal depredation of caught fish from, and damage to, gill nets now jeopardising the economic viability of the fishery. Representatives from the LCF estimate that fur seal depredation has reduced fishery production by approximately 25%. In 2012/13, a commercial LCF licence holder documented production losses of $76,000 over a 5 month period. At the same time, 19 other licence holders were experiencing similar or greater losses. Industry estimates that fur seal interactions are costing the fishery a wharf value loss of $2 million. Industry now questions whether the fishery will be viable in five years if alternative management strategies or options are not found to mitigate the impacts of interactions.

The need for alternative fishing methods and/or deterrent systems to reduce the impacts of fur seal depredation on the fishery is urgent, given the increasing economic impacts to the LCF fishers and the local communities that rely heavily on the fishing industry.

For several years, Huon has been monitoring temperature, salinity and DO conditions at its Maq harbour sites to understand the spatial and seasonal variability in the environment. This pre-existing, long-term data set has clearly identified the summer months as a critical production period given the combination of high temperatures and low dissolved oxygen at production depths within the cages. Monitoring of the environment in MH in late 2015 and early 2016 shows that dissolved oxygen levels at cage production depths are the poorest on record over the past 5 years. This pre-existing work has identified a clear need to understand the coping strategies of salmon under summer conditions.

High-resolution data on salmon swimming depths and schooling densities in relation to temperature and dissolved oxygen, in particular, will enable determination of how it can best manage current and future production in MH. This includes implementing cage management strategies to minimise negative impacts upon production, timing harvests to avoid compromising the production potential of its farms, and setting appropriate stocking densities for each cage.

In March 2016, the Tasmanian government will re-visit production limits for Macquarie Harbour. Detailed information from this project is needed for inclusion in Huon’s submission as part of this process.

The fishing industry ranks amongst the highest risk industries in Australia for safety, yet there are considerable barriers to basic safety training, including:

• Cost – operators cannot afford it
• Time – Courses are infrequent throughout the year. This does not meet the operational needs of the industry, where workers may be required at short notice.
• Location – Courses are usually delivered in major cities. This makes access to the training difficult for many workers, including once they are at sea.
• Context – Courses are usually delivered in a classroom setting with activities related to survival in emergency situations at sea. They do not address general workplace safety such as manual handling, electrical safety, fall protection, noise, fatigue, hazardous substances, personal protective equipment (PPE), etc.
• Access – The internet is rarely available at sea, making access to safety training and information impossible for much of the time workers are fishing.
• Demographic – workers in the fishing industry are largely represented by young, early school leavers with a high sense of adventure and risk appetite. Learning must be structured with this in mind to ensure the learner is engaged and the lessons are delivered effectively.
• Culture - the information both subliminal as well as overt sent out about safety.

The electronic LMS, which is the fundamental base for this project, is to be designed to address all of the above barriers, and provide a structured, cheap, easily accessible and timely safety course, in a manner which is readily absorbed and understood by the crew member undertaking the course. The training modules are to be delivered online and offline, making them accessible anywhere at any time and can also be tailored to specific industry sectors, while retaining the core units, and aim to achieve best practice in all aspects of WHS.

RIRDC initiated a project (attached) due to significant knowledge deficiencies in the area of commercial fishing occupational health and safety data and of the existing circumstances of the industry. The gaps in knowledge have arisen due to previous difficulties in collating and interpreting data, which have resulted from disaggregation of State data, creating difficulties in data analysis at the national level; availability of state data; and the nature of the fishing industry which results in many participants not being included in official statistics or records.

The report found that there was a lack of awareness of occupational health and safety, or safety
culture, and that it still fails to be effectively dealt with across all States of Australia. The OHS data identifies that the claims for fatal injuries in aquaculture and non fatal in marine (or wild capture) fisheries are both increasing. The most ‘at risk’ group in the industry are those between the ages of 20 to 24 years, with those aged 45 – 54 years being the next most at risk group, who will receive injuries from non powered hand tools to their upper bodies.

EBFM requires performance indicators for a wide range of species that interact with fisheries, and systems to monitor those performance indicators. However, there is no routine monitoring of the status of the many commercially important byproduct and bycatch species. The assessment of these non-target species remains important in terms of the Commonwealth Harvest Strategy Policy and AFMA have expressed a need for a solution to how to assess the relative status of these species. Such monitoring is required for strategic assessment under the EPBC Act (1997).

Most of non-target species are not under quota and while not directly targeted they can still experience significant fishing mortality and add value to the landed catch. Currently, if they are assessed at all, the assessments merely apply the same strategies as adopted for target species. There is often a perception that CPUE should be disregarded “because the species was not targeted”. There is a need to determine whether alternative methods should be applied to such species that take into account the fact that their catch is incidental to the main activities of the fishers and hence the fishery dependent data for the non-target species will have different qualities. By definition these fisheries are multi-species in nature and this too can complicate their assessment. Technically this is not a trivial problem and more clarity is needed concerning the scope of the issue and how to deal with it. Rather than launch immediately into a relatively long term attempt at finding a solution, a more efficient approach is proposed that involves expert examination and rapid review to map the road ahead. Hence there is a need to conduct workshops aimed at clarifying the management requirements and the most cost effective approach to solving these management issues, which apply to all multi-species data poor fisheries.