Projects within the FHT require contribution from staff with resource economics skills because the theme is pursuing higher economic yield. The need for specialised input is far greater than in other areas of the CRC because improved economic outcomes in wild fisheries involve balancing complex trade-offs. For example, higher catch in wild fisheries usually results in complex, non-linear changes in cost of fishing as stocks become scarcer. These systems require specialised skills and substantial research effort to model and understand.

The common-pool nature of wild fisheries means that business decisions that are good for the individual are often bad for the collective. Consequently, wild fisheries tend to evolve towards low economic yield in the absence of management decision making based on economic analysis. Evidence of this is that Australia's best performing wild fishery is one where there is no common pool problem - the Exmouth gulf fishery is operated by a single company. Likewise individual aquaculture firms can adjust their production without impacting on the productivity of other producers. The point here is that the FHT will be reliant on quality resource economics support if it is to achieve its goals of growth in earnings and NPV.