1. The need to manage the growth of the coral reef fishery to prevent depletion of this natural resource, and its associated ecosystems, has been clearly identified and legislation has been put in place under the Fisheries (Coral Reef Fin Fish) Management Plan 2003. To ensure compliance, Officers must be able to identify the fish they are inspecting, and currently there is no suitable test to identify fish fillets in the field and to confirm that commercial and recreational fishers comply with quota and possession limits, thus assuring sustainability of the resource.

2. Recent research by the PI has shown that DNA sequencing can identify coral reef finfish to a species level even when visible markers have been removed (such as through filleting). However, DNA sequencing is complex and expensive making it unsuitable for screening large numbers of fillets. Thus, there is a need for a tool that can identify fish species, be rapidly and easily used at sea, and is sufficiently discriminatory to differentiate between closely related coral reef fin fish. Public awareness of such a tool will deter non-compliance.

3. Development of this test is supported by several State and Commonwealth R&D plans and priorities that result from identified needs. The following plans identify sustainability of natural resources:
a. Queensland Fishing Industry Research Advisory Committee priorities include identification of performance indicators and development of tools (priority 1.7), which is the aim of the project. This proposal is supported by QFIRAC.
b. FRDC: legislative, institutional, compliance and policy arrangements; and fisheries and ecosystem management methods (Strategies 7 and 10, Natural Resources Sustainability) identifies the need for compliance tools such as that proposed.
c. Queensland State: Development of Enabling Technologies (Priority 1) includes biotechnology as used in this project proposal. Sustainable Queensland Coastlines and Great Barrier Reef (Priority 2) has been discussed above; and Tropical Futures (Priority 5) addresses issues, problems and opportunities in tropical regions, and this proposal promotes regional science to answer a regional need.
d. Fisheries research priorities for all Australian States include sustainability of natural resources and a rapid field-test for specific DNA sequences could apply to particular species of interest from any location.