Why are we going direct mail? Because you asked for it. In our January edition this year we ran a reader survey and we have followed it with a phone survey to a representative sample of grass roots industry members. The aim of both surveys was to get a better understanding of what information you would like to see in R&D News and how you would like to receive the newsletter.

No fewer than 80 per cent of respondents said they would like to receive R&D News directly. So that’s what we will do, beginning January 2006. For many readers this will mean seeing important information on topics such as FRDC’s funding rounds and industry meetings or conferences in time to take advantage of it.

In the next few editions you will start to see other results of the surveys flow through in style and layout. In this edition, as noted in our ED’s editorial, you will see three case studies on people in industry. In the next edition we will outline more results of the surveys.

MORE: Peter Horvat, FRDC Communications Manager, phone 02 6285 0414

$6.5m for new 06-07 R&D

FRDC expects to provide $6.5m to fund new R&D projects in 2006-07, an increase of $500,000 – 7.6 per cent – on the current year.

The corporation’s indicative distribution of this total among jurisdictions in the accompanying table assumes a 60 per cent application success rate.

This would be a significant increase on this year’s 46 per cent success, but FRDC says it believes 60 per cent is achievable because of continued improvement in the way the fisheries research advisory bodies (FRABs) translate end-user needs into R&D applications.

But it says achieving it will require a team effort to ensure only high-priority applications are submitted to FRDC for evaluation.

The table also takes account of:

MORE: Patrick Hone, FRDC Executive Director, phone 02 6285 0400

OAM for fisher-author Kerr

ROCK lobster fisher and author Garry Kerr has received an Order of Australia Medal for his work as a historian, commentator and video producer in the Tasmanian maritime and forest industries.

Based in Portland, Victoria, Garry Kerr left school at 14 and became a fisherman at 16. He has expressed his life-long interest in working boats and the pioneering men and women who crewed them in a series of books and, latterly, videos and DVDs, that trace the history of Australian fishing in general and Tasmanian fishing and maritime trading in particular.

An OAM from the June list also has gone to Sydney chef, restaurateur and seafood afficionado Tetsuya Wakuda, whose quest for perfection sees him fly to Tasmania to talk face-to-face with growers of his preferred ocean trout.

Honours of a different kind in Western Australia, where Ian Potter, professor in Murdoch University’s Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research and frequent FRDC principal investigator, has become only the second recipient of Murdoch’s medal for excellence in research.

In a double presentation the university also awarded an honorary doctorate to WA’s Executive Director of Fisheries, Peter Rogers, for his services to science.

Funding priorities for 2006-07

FOR its 2006 funding round, the FRDC Board says it is keen to see applications that address:

The Board is considering strategic initiatives in these areas and will pass its conclusions onto the FRABS and intending applicants later this year, either directly or through R&D News and www.frdc.com.au.

FRDC’s new R&D Plan 2005-10, available at www.frdc.com.au from August, identifies the framework for R&D investment and the areas – challenges – that FRDC and its stakeholders consider to be priorities.

During the 2005 funding round the FRDC Board identifed gaps in important areas and invested in strategic initiatives to close the gaps in future by delivering the necessary R&D. These strategic initiatives included:

In addition, the Board has asked the FRDC secretariat to:

FRDC believes these activities provide a further strong indication of the Board’s view on 2006-07 R&D priorities.

MORE: Patrick Hone, FRDC Executive Director, phone 02 6285 0400.

FRDC report awarded

FRDC’S 2005 annual report has again won recognition at the Australasian Reporting Award (ARA) for the quality of its corporate governance information. At the presentation, from left: ARA Chair John Horder, FRDC Communications Manager Peter Horvat and Pacific Project Management consultant Clive Huggan.

Double gold for industry’s big green leap

COMMERCIAL fishing has received independent confirmation of its greatly-improved ecological credentials by winning two of the United Nations Association of Australia’s 2005 World Environment Day Awards.

Southern Rocklobster Ltd (SRL) won the UNAA environmental best practice program accolade for its Clean Green Program, a system of onboard training and auditing being adopted in the rock lobster fisheries of South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

This award, in the business enterprise category, was sponsored by the National Australia Bank.

Ocean Watch Australia received the UNAA award for excellence in marine and coastal management for the success of its SeaNet liasion service, which works with commercial fishers to develop environmental solutions.

EMS for fishers, by fishers

SOUTHERN Rocklobster Limited set up its Clean Green Program as a fishery-controlled (lobster) pot-to-plate initiative that would anticipate and satisfy market, community and government challenges along its tri-state supply chain.

As an environmental management system (EMS) it is certified in accordance with JAS-ANZ accredited audit procedures conforming to ISO/IEC Guide 65 and JAS-ANZ Procedure 15.

Its foundation is a standard of best practice developed and adopted by industry, for industry, covering environmental practice, seafood safety and quality and occupational health and safety. Performance against all criteria is audited independently.

Take-up began in South Australia and is being extended through the Tasmanian and Victorian fleets.

At the beginning of last month 238 fishers, skippers and crew had completed the training course and 133 boats audited had either met or exceeded the standard.

Southern Rocklobster Ltd says support for the program by skippers and crews and their demonstrated willingness to improve work practices is a significant cultural shift.

SRL says the clean, green initiative also gives southern rock lobster fisheries a powerful means of showing the community that they are effective stewards of the marine environment.

MORE: Justin Phillips, Southern Rocklobster Limited, phone 1300 853 880; email
justin.phillips@corvel.com.au

Ocean Watch: face-to face

WORKING directly with commercial fishers through the SeaNet service is the formula that earned the non-profit industry organisation Ocean Watch Australia Ltd the UNAA Award for Excellence in Marine and Coastal Management.

SeaNet’s major thrust has been the provision of face-to-face information and advice on:

SeaNet specialists have been employed by Ocean Watch since 1999 and work out of fishery or industry organisations in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Commonwealth Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery.

Funding is being sought for a position in Tasmania.

The organisation’s major funding from the Natural Heritage Trust is topped up by its working partnerships with management agencies, industry associations and R&D providers.

Strategic advice comes from a steering committee comprising representatives of Ocean Watch, the Australian Seafood Industry Council, the Australian Government Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Environment and Heritage, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and FRDC.

Program manager Emma Bradshaw says six years’ work with commercial fishers has seen:

MORE: Emma Bradshaw, phone 07 5514 6021, 07 5533 7933; email ejb@bigpond.net.au

Smart gear a WWF winner

A FISHERIES development specialist who once fished commercially in Australia has won more than $32,000 ($US25,000) in the first annual smart gear competition staged by WWF -— the conservation organisation.

Steve Beverly, now a fisheries development officer with the Secretariat for the Pacific Community in New Caledonia, designed a tuna longline system to swiftly take a lead-weighted mainline to a depth greater than 100m.

The aim was to deliver baits for tuna and day-swimming swordfish beyond the range of Pacific marine turtles, which get tangled in or hooked by descending longlines at lesser depths.

The WWF says three longliners that tested the gear reported a 42 per cent increase in their tuna catch.

Smart gear judges, who WWF said were experts in bycatch mitigation R&D, voted unanimously for the innovation.

They said it was simple, inexpensive, relied on basic ecological research and Pacific island fishers could use it to modify their existing lines, without a need to buy or be trained on complicated new gear.

Steve Beverly says he has longlined tuna commercially out of Hawaii and lists his Australian commercial experience as exploratory fishing for rock lobster and demersal finfish. He is now working with WWF to produce an English/French guidebook for fishers on the deep-setting technique.

WWF says its smart gear prize will continue to be offered annually for ‘the best real-world, cost-effective idea that allows fishers to fish while also reducing the accidental catch of unintended species like sea turtles, marine mammals, sea birds and juvenile fish’.

MORE: Steve Beverly, email steveb@spc.int; Liz McLellan, WWF, email lmclellan@wwf.org.au; www.SmartGear.org

How do we tell the good news?

THE first steps to reversing negative community perceptions of fishing are to be taken by a committee of professional communicators and industry specialists.

The committee, established at a national workshop in Adelaide, is chaired by Russ Neal, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Seafood Industry Council.

It will consult with industry before developing objectives and a strategy to achieve them.

Catalyst for the move was a 2003 telephone survey of 1004 adults, funded by FRDC, in which only 25 per cent of respondents said they regarded commercial wild-catch fishing as sustainable.

Recreational fishing was rated sustainable by 56 per cent.

Most in the phone survey and associated focus groups said their information came from mass media, particularly television. Although most rated their knowledge as low, 53 per cent said they were interested, pointing to a significant opportunity for industry to communicate positive news.

Workshop files, notes and minutes are available at www.pir.sa.gov.au/pages/fisheries/comm_fishing/community_perceptions.html:sectID=263&tempID=1.Survey results are at www.frdc.com.au/bookshop/.

MORE: Russ Neal, phone 02 6281 0383;
www.asic.org.au

Weighing the worth of fishing

A GUIDE book funded by FRDC to improve the assessment of fishing’s contribution to the community is now available in hard copy and as a free download.

The Social Assessment Handbook: A guide to methods and approaches for assessing the social sustainability of fisheries in Australia was written by the Bureau of Rural Sciences.

It shows managers, social scientists and others how to carry out a social assessment effectively, starting with the types of information needed and how to collect, use and evaluate it.

Launching the guide, Australian Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald said understanding the fishing industry’s social and economic contributions was essential for people considering resource access or management changes.

“This book is a valuable guide to understanding communities that directly and indirectly depend on fishing and to identify what they value and believe about the sector. It shows how important the fishing industry is to our economies and way of life and can improve public understanding of how people working in the industry contribute to their communities.

“This includes the importance of their support for local services, businesses and social networks.”

The Social Assessment Handbook is available in hard copy from BRS, phone 02 6272 3933 for $40, or may be downloaded from
www.brs.gov.au/socialsciences.

MORE: Jacki Schirmir, BRS,
phone 02 6272 3382; email
jack.schirmir@brs.gov.au

Hopes high for shift to SIFTS

THERE’S a lot riding on project 2005/213 -— for FRDC, for Fremantle’s Challenger TAFE, for major investor McRobert Aquaculture Systems, for a full field of supporting investors and, possibly, for the future of Australian aquaculture.

The innovation carrying the hopes and the money is SIFTS – an acronym of Semi-Intensive Floating Tank System, a radical concept for inland saline, freshwater and marine aquaculture. Its ability to oxygenate and remove nutrients promises unique benefits in each environment.

The name may well confirm that science and marketing should remain worlds apart.

Nevertheless, SIFTS effortlessly penetrated the consciousness of more than a million Australians, including potential new investors, when Ian McRobert and Principal Investigator and Challenger TAFE scientist Gavin Partridge were handed the award for invention of the week on the ABC-TV program The New Inventors.

Off-the-shelf

The serious stuff now for Challenger TAFE Manager of Aquaculture R&D Greg Jenkins and his team is to use the three-year FRDC project that began this month to design and prove a fully commercial, off-the-shelf product for Australia and the world.

FRDC funding of $660,000 has been leveraged to $1.4m. The practical work is taking place on a broadacre farm at Northam, in the West Australian wheat belt, about two hours inland by road from Perth, where owner Stan Malinowski has also kicked $100,000 into the kitty.

Challenger TAFE has signed over its intellectual property rights in return for a royalty on sales. And though $1.4m may sound a lot of money for the commercialisation phase of a TAFE-driven project that already has swallowed double that amount, Greg Jenkins says financial management will have to be tight to deliver a commercial product on time and on budget.

But he is confident his team can do it – a confidence boosted by two years of tightly-funded prototyping, tedious analysis of inland saline water on site and, in bigger batches, at Fremantle; finfish species selection and eventual successful growout of rainbow trout, barramundi and mulloway. All funded locally, with the exception of a minor grant or two – minor, but gratefully accepted.

“So now we have technology that works, the spreadsheet and proven ability to budget, great determination and what I think is TAFE’s deserved reputation for delivering practical commercial outcomes.”

20t per hectare

The projected outcome of this second phase is an off-the-shelf SIFTS module that will produce 20t of fish per hectare each year from a pond of saline groundwater – which means managing the pond as a total ecosystem.

“To achieve this we intend to run the FRDC project as a hard-nosed business development with a good commercialisation strategy. If FRDC agrees, we’ll release our milestone reports to industry every six months,” Greg Jenkins said.

“Inland saline pond aquaculture is potentially very important to Australia and WA in particular. SIFTS is the key. But interested landowners must understand that managing a pond indefinitely on a total ecosystem basis is an intensive discipline.

“As for the sea, if our concept is a commercial success inland, adapting it to a marine environment should be comparatively easy.”

Greg Jenkins believes SIFTS will deliver three major benefits for sea cage culture:

The big unknown for marine use is whether or not the SIFTS system can be scaled up to commercial size.

“But just imagine SIFTS being used in the horizon-to-horizon sea cage systems of Asia. It could remove 90 per cent of the solids that currently are allowed to build up in those massive developments,” he said.

Infrastructure is inland

For inland WA, the picture is more sharply defined. “SIFTS inland saline systems won’t raise the same concerns as would developments on high-priced, contentious, coastal sites.

“Their inland application is clear because suitable saline groundwater is available there, roads and other infrastructure are well-developed and they will complement existing inland land use, such as grain growing.”

New crop synergies are possible too on saline land. The development team intends to trial its nutrient waste in an aqua-agri bio-remediation project in the wheat belt, where an imported plant species promising significant environmental and economic benefits requires both extremely salty soil and added nutrient to make growing sites more productive.

For FRDC, funding the SIFTS project is a significant new push for a no-holds-barred commercial outcome.

For the Challenger TAFE team, its CY O’Connor TAFE and Murdoch University colleagues and SIFTS private investors, it’s a case of today – Northam. Tomorrow – quite possibly – the world.

MORE: Greg Jenkins, phone 08 9239 8030;
email, greg.jenkins@challengertafe.wa.edu.au;
www.maritime.challengertafe.wa.edu.au

Making the best even better

BARRY EVANS reckons good fishing practices based on sound research have made the South Australia’s Spencer Gulf prawn fishery the best of its kind. His evidence:

President of the Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association since 1994, Barry Evans entered the fishery as a deckhand in 1971. By 1977 he owned his own boat.

A moment of truth came in the mid-80s when a mini-collapse of the hard-fished stock saw the annual catch drop from 2000t to 1200t. This convinced him and his fellow-fishers to stop killing small prawns by devising research-based strategies to locate and catch mature ones only.

Guidance came from the South Australian Research and Development Institute’s (SARDI) Neil Carrick, who helped the fishery understand the structure of the stock and locate its nursery areas.

This researcher-industry partnership lasted until 2004, sustained by Neil Carrick’s belief that success depended on both parties working for the goal of sustainable industry profitability.

Continuing support from FRDC following its inception in 1993 continued to clarify stock structure and behaviour, helping the fishery to sharpen its targeting.

As prawn catchability, size and quality improved, the fishery that had worked up to 280 nights a year began to massively reduce sea time, lift profits and improve the quality of life for fishers and their families.

Now the fishers themselves, ten or eleven boats at a time, make the crucial pre-season survey that will indicate the best harvest locations, based on test shots from coordinates that remain constant year-on-year.

No new area is fished without sampling. The skipper elected coordinator of the fishery’s committee-at-sea consolidates the survey results and, with the assistance of the SARDI scientist, now Cameron Dixon, consensus is reached on the areas to be opened and closed.

The precision approach continues when the nets are down. Bycatch is minimal.

“We don’t pick up bottom, or weed, and the catch of finfish per tonne of prawns wouldn’t make a meal for a family,” Barry Evans said.

The blue crabs that are the major bycatch are drafted into a separate compartment in the net during each tow, then separately released on to crab racks.

After the prawns are released into the hopper the separated crabs are returned to the gulf, after spending as little as one minute on board.

Barry Evans said for a fishery determined to err on the side of caution, self-management was the next R&D goal.

“We’ve already got it to a degree, we want more of it, but we need to thoroughly research our options and make sure that the outcome is a benefit, not a burden.”

The future?

“Rosy. I feel good about it. We now have a third generation of Port Lincoln families beginning to run the boats and they’re doing everything necessary to hand over a first class fishery to a fourth generation.”

MORE: Barry Evans, phone 08 8682 1859;
email sgwcpfa@ozemail.com.au

People, not just guts and gonads

DEVELOPING an Environmental Management System (EMS) for South Australia’s Spencer Gulf prawn fishery was Samara Miller’s first experience driving a FRDC-funded project.

The outcome?

“Very successful,” said the Port Lincoln-based fishery executive officer.

“We decided the people in the fishery should develop the EMS themselves to own the process - then ask the government departments and other bureaucracies for their input. Not vice versa.

“With the help of the Australian Fisheries Academy we devised a practical, fishery-specific training course on risk assessment for our skippers and 76 per cent of them took part.

“We’d also decided that if we were developing an EMS we should do it for food safety and occupational health and safety too, so our EMS combines all three.

“Part of the training was round-the-table stuff and part involved groups of six skippers boarding someone else’s prawn trawler and assessing the risks they found there.

“They’re always keen to know what the other guy has got on his boat, so capitalising on that, I think, resulted in a few more signing on for the course.

“Owning the process helped in another way too, because risk assessment really is about putting our dirty washing on the table and working out what do about it.”

A draft On-Boat Management System Manual was developed by a sub-committee of fishers and will be presented to a meeting of skippers in due course for comments and fine-tuning.

Samara Miller said as a first-timer she had found the rigor of FRDC’s application and assessment process daunting but good and the Corporation’s people innovative and open.

“I’d heard Patrick Hone (then FRDC’s Programs Manager) tell the prawn fishery conference last year of his interest in research into people development and I thought – fantastic! It’s not just about guts and gonads.

“Because that’s the heart of the matter. You achieve positive industry outcomes by looking into the social issues.”

Samara Miller speaks with some authority. She left university with a BA in psychology and a tenuous wish to turn her interest in human behaviour and the marine environment into a career, knowing all the while her degree was unlikely to open many doors.

So, after backpacking around Europe she applied for, was accepted and completed a Master of Science degree in marine environmental protection at the University College of North Wales.

Returning to Australia she worked with the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment fisheries division, leaving as a fishery policy officer to return to her home state of South Australia and become an Adelaide-based fisheries manager.

Transferred to Port Lincoln as the state’s first regional fisheries manager, she soon received a job offer from industry.

Now she has a number of industry responsibilities and titles, including Manager of Strategy and Policy for the Seafood Council (SA) Ltd and Executive Officer of the Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association.

“It’s been a great move. I don’t pretend to know anything about prawn fishing, but I do understand the culture and can contribute by devising forward strategies, facilitating and counselling.

“Prawning is a consensus fishery and we have healthy debates. My only fear in deciding to work for industry was that I might have to compromise personal principles on issues such as sustainability.

“But it hasn’t happened. Personal principles and fishery objectives have never misaligned.”

And with the prawn EMS project nearing completion, she hopes her endorsement of the FRDC process – ‘every time I ring I get so much help’ – might encourage other potential industry first-timers to have a go too.

MORE: Samara Miller, phone 08 8682 4600;
email samara@corvel.com.au

Students discover sea life

IMAGINE city and country kids getting up close and personal with sharks and skates, caressing sea stars, waving at hermit crabs and kissing cowfish.

Students from Tasmanian schools can do all this and more at the Education Department Marine Discovery Centre at Woodbridge, on D’Entrecasteaux Channel, south of Hobart.

The Centre invites students of all ages to discover, learn about and care for the marine environment through diverse shore and sea-based programs.

The centre is built out over the waters of the Channel, the sheltered, safe, but spectacular maritime gateway to Hobart, complete with uninhabited islands, an interesting history and fascinating marine ecology. Part of Woodbridge School, it houses teaching areas, an aquarium room, marine pond, touch tanks and lots of displays as well as Tasmania’s biggest collection of cool temperate marine species.

Set up 26 years ago and the oldest of its kind in Australia, the centre also has its own 13.5m research vessel, the Penghana; and a marine farming lease.

It offers interactive programs for local and visiting students from kindergarten to Year 12, designed around Essential Learnings; and runs seminars for teachers.

Guided by the Centre’s marine biologist, primary school groups discover the marine environment using live animals and displays and by exploring the adjacent Peppermint Bay foreshore. Here they learn about tidal zones, how different animals adapt to a difficult environment – and have a really good look under all the rocks.

The Penghana is a floating classroom from which secondary groups explore the Channel environment in more depth. A former Tasmanian government fisheries research vessel, it is equipped with GPS, radar, sonar, oceanographic monitoring equipment and a variety of fishing technologies. Back at the centre secondary students study live specimens to understand how they adapt to their environment and how they fit into the Channel food web.

The Woodbridge School philosophy is heavily biased towards environmental and sustainability studies and local students from kindergarten to Grade 10 are regularly involved in marine programs that range across the curriculum.

Woodbridge Grade 9 and 10 students have the opportunity to study practical aquaculture and qualify for a motor boat licence.

The centre is also keen to involve senior students from all schools in scientific research and has close links with scientists from CSIRO, the Tasmanian Aquaculture & Fisheries Institute, and the Australian Antarctic Division – and with commercial fishers through the Tasmanian Fishing Industry Council.

Soon the centre’s students will begin contributing to an ongoing scientific monitoring program of the Channel and will post their data on the web for other students and scientists.

MORE: Pam Elliott, Marine Discovery Centre, phone
03 6267 4649, email pam.elliott@education.tas.gov.au, www.woodbridge.tased.edu.au/MDC

Final reports

FINAL reports on these recently-completed R&D projects are available from FRDC, or other sources named.

Sea urchin enhancement

An Australian-made feed is now available to improve roe yield from wild-harvest sea urchins. In a field trial, purple urchins with an initial yield of 2.63 per cent delivered a mean yield of 11.2 per cent after being cage-fed for 80 days. Principal Investigator Richard Musgrove of the SA Research and Development Institute said urchins of about 72mm diameter produced the best combination of weight, colour and texture. For commercial enhancement he recommends feed-lotting from April to September, when gonads are immature.

1999/319

Deepwater crabs

Two deepwater crab species targeted off Western Australia are approaching maximum size when trapped, so catches should be capped and minimum legal sizes established to ensure sustainability, says Principal Investigator Ian Potter of Murdoch University. This won’t be easy. He says because immature champagne crabs Hypothalassia acerba and crystal crabs Chaceon bicolour are under-represented in trap catches, estimates of female size-at-maturity based on catch data are almost certainly wrong. Males too are enigmatic. Unlike other crab species, sexual maturity does not seem to be linked to claw length.

1999/154

NSW’s R&D plan

New South Wales’ 2004-09 R&D plan spells out 243 research needs identified by stakeholders in wild fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic conservation. As such it outlines clear priorities for funding organisations and researchers, says Principal Investigator Steven Kennelly of the NSW Department of Primary Industries. He says it will be updated as priorities change, with a full revision in 2007.

2004/311 Plan available at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au

SBT residues

Southern bluefin tuna exporters now have a better understanding of how importing nations conduct port of entry testing for residues such as mercury and dioxin. South Australian wild and farmed southern bluefin tuna (SBT) was found to meet the standards set in Australia and internationally. The research by David Padula and his team at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) also resulted in the removal of SBT from the Food Standards Australia New Zealand mercury advisory statement in March 2004. The SARDI team is now working on tools to help farmers better manage residues in tuna feeds.

2003/227

WA snapper recovery

The allowable commercial and recreational catch of snapper in Western Australia’s Shark Bay has been cut by 60 per cent for the next five years to reverse the biomass depletion identified by this project. Principal Investigator Michael Moran of the WA Department of Fisheries says modelling of age composition data indicated that maintenance of a consistent harvest following a previously unidentified recruitment failure in the late 1990s had reduced the biomass to less than 30 per cent of its virgin state. If the expected recovery occurs, the annual allowable catch is projected to rise from 220t to 480t from 2010. The researchers have recommended ongoing age-composition monitoring to detect infrequent but drastic recruitment failure, plus a reduction in the minimum legal size to avoid wastage of undersize snapper they say mostly die if returned to the water.

2000/138

Victorian habitat model

Software that models the location of important commercial fish habitat in Victoria’s bays and inlets has been developed by Primary Industries Research Victoria, using a geographic information system. The major species addressed are King George whiting, snapper, greenback flounder, rock and sand flathead, Australian salmon, southern calamari and yellow-eye mullet. Principal Investigator David Ball says the resulting spatial models provide a picture of habitat suitability that is simplified but relatively effective, giving fishery managers insights that previously were not readily available.

2000/157

Disease identification CD

A pictorial guide to help fisheries and aquaculture managers identify significant aquatic animal diseases is out on CD and at www.disease-watch.com. The CD’s printable pdf pages allow specific fact sheets to be quickly distributed by email or fax, says Principal Investigator Alistair Herfort of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

2003/642 CD free from Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestery, phone 02 6272 4328; email: aah@daff.gov.au; www.disease-watch.com

New diagnostic detectors

A fast, specific, molecular diagnostic test is now available to detect epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS), which is endemic and affects farmed freshwater finfish and wild native species. Primers have also been designed to identify exotic - and potentially catastrophic - freshwater crayfish plague and these are being developed into a specific test in FRDC project 2004/091. Principal Investigator Nicky Buller of the Department of Agriculture WA says a polymerase chain reaction technique is used to identify a section of DNA unique to each disease.

2001/621

Abalone stock model

This is a new level of sophistication, say the developers of a spatially structured model for stock assessment and allowable catch analysis in Australian abalone fisheries. Collaborators from the CSIRO and four State research organisations led by Primary Industries Research Victoria (PIRVic) have delivered a MS Windows-based tool they say is user-friendly, handles big computer runs and allows results to be simulated and analysed. Principal Investigator Harry Gorfine of PIRVic says it can also use projections of habitat reduction to estimate maximum sustainable yield.

1999/116

Better prawn gear

Better gear and fishing practices developed in this project will significantly reduce the unintentional kill of small prawns in New South Wales commercial and recreational fisheries and ultimately increase harvests. So says Principal Investigator Matt Broadhurst of the NSW Fisheries Conservation Technology Unit. Trials showed that replacing diamond mesh in the codends of commercial trawls, most seines and stow nets with 27mm-29mm square knotless mesh allowed the escape of up to 99 per cent of unwanted school prawns and 91 per cent of other bycatch, while maintaining the commercial catch. Associated aquarium simulations indicated that more than 89 per cent of small school prawns survived repeated escapes from trawls.

2001/031

NSW oyster depuration

Only minimal changes are needed to the long-standing code of practice for depuration of New South Wales oysters, according to this University of NSW study. Tests on inoculated Sydney rock oysters from five estuaries and Pacific oysters from Port Stephens returned ‘acceptable’ E. coli levels for most conditions, the exceptions being when depuration temperature or salinity differed significantly from harvest conditions. Principal Investigator Ken Buckle says storage of Sydney rock oysters before depuration may safely be extended from the current four days to seven. But he points out that depuration did not reduce the levels of three introduced bacteriophages to the same extent as that of E. coli and says the relevance of the behaviour of these viral indicators to the presence of oyster viruses requires more work.

1998/319

Time series analysis

Time series modelling promises better stock assessment of many Western Australian target species, from rock lobster and prawns to pilchards, dhufish, red emperor, Australian herring and Australian salmon. The models are straightforward, require few parameters and are particularly beneficial for fisheries lacking data and adequate assessment techniques, says Principal Investigator Monty Craine of the Department of Fisheries WA. He says even when biological parameters can be estimated, time series methods may deliver superior predictions.

1999/155

ESD assessment progress

The initial Ecologically Sustainable Development Assessment Manual developed collaboratively with industry has given Australia’s major wild fisheries the tools they needed to demonstrate compliance with the Australian Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, using a uniform national framework. Future editions will cast a wider net, says Principal Investigator Rick Fletcher of the Department of Fisheries WA, by dealing with social and economic components in more detail, plus the ecosystem-based management issues of recreational and smaller commercial wild fisheries.

2002/086

EMS development

Framework and guidance material for the Environmental Management Systems (EMS) being adopted by fisheries Australia-wide to measure, maintain and demonstrate environmentally sustainable performance were developed through case studies with industry associations in four states. Principal Investigator Phil March of Ocean Watch says that besides an EMS chooser and a step-by-step guide, the case studies produced components such as a risk assessment and a code of conduct that industry associations can use to implement and refine their management systems.

2000/146

Farmed barramundi standards

Annual production of farmed barramundi is expected to reach 4000t in 2005-06, thanks in part to the product specifications and quality standards developed in this project. They cover condition, size, grading, flavour, packing and labelling of fresh whole fish and, according to Principal Investigator Carl Young of the Australian Barramundi Farmers’ Association (ABFA), have resulted in fewer complaints and increased confidence from buyers and investors. The ABFA is now assessing the potential for an auditable grower accreditation scheme and a quality label.

2002/404

R&D to meet 05-06 challenges

FRDC will invest $6m into new projects this financial year, as part of a total R&D investment of $34m. Among the new work and its benefits:

In the Northern Territory a $178,000 project will see state-of-the art technology factored into management plans to change the way fishermen provide information and the way managers see and interpret a fishery. (2005/047)

Victorian abalone divers and the fishery’s managers will work together in a $3.5m project that will allow divers to use their local knowledge and take account of environmental conditions during harvesting, to improve stock sustainability while optimsing their catch (2005/024)

A colour test strip that will allow fishers and compliance officers in Queensland to positively identify the tropical reef species comprising a catch. This will follow the forensic markers to be developed in this $755,000 project. (2005/011)

The southern bluefin tuna aquculture sector and scientists will get together in a $4.3m project to predict environmental activities such as severe storms and algal blooms – and quantify the effect of tuna farming on the broader environment. (2005/059)

In South Australia’s Lakes and Coorong fishery $205,000 has been earmarked to help fishers achieve third party environmental certification at the highest international level. (2005/061)

Tasmania will turn on the lights to make Atlantic salmon grow faster and taste better in a $1.3m initiative based on the knowledge that seasonal light changes trigger maturity and, with it, slower growth. (2005/201)

Offshore, an $817,000 project will help Tasmanian scallop fishers refine their paddock fishing system that is extending the fishing season and improving stock replenishment – with the eventual aim of introducing it elsewhere. (2005/027)

In Western Australia two new projects worth almost $1.1m aim to implement environmental management systems in pearling and other fisheries. (2005/044 and 2005/035)

A $590,000 study in New South Wales will attempt to find out the fate of fish that escape from trawls through bycatch reduction devices, with the aim of modifying fishing practices to ensure maximum bycatch survival. (2005/056)

MORE: Crispian Ashby, phone 02 6285 0425; email crispian.ashby@frdc.com.au