R&D News

  Volume 13, Edition 4

ED’s Editorial

What do we do now?

CONGRATULATIONS to the organisers of Seafood Directions 2005 in Sydney. Grahame Turk, Louise Nock and the team set out to challenge us to think of our future and the course we need to chart.

Those who attended both Seafood Directions and the subsequent 6th World Congress on Seafood Safety, Quality and Trade will have plenty of food for thought on how they adapt and change to meet the challenges and opportunities in the seafood industry. For those who could not attend, this issue of R&D News contains reports of the main presentations.

I left Seafood Directions conference proud of the seafood industry. The week was by no means easy. The messages were not always what we wanted to hear. The passion was evident in the questions and comments from the floor. High fuel prices, low cost imports, a high Australian dollar, skill shortages, globalisation of seafood markets and, significantly, resource access are some of the key issues facing our industry.

A forum chaired by Bob Pennington and a panel consisting of Neil Baird, Barry McRoberts and John Olsen provided heartfelt evidence that fishing families are hurting. The passion and commitment of grassroots fishers highlighted why doing things the same or better is not an option. We have to change to adapt to the business and social environment we work in. And we have to do it now.

Neville Grady and Norm Grant argued that trusting one another and investing in social capital is essential, as it is the glue that holds us together. So it was appropriate to see two seafood leaders, Ron Edwards and Simon Bennison, present a collegiate view on developing a single entity to promote Australian seafood. A discussion expertly led by Alex Kailis identified visionary elements for this initiative.

During the conference we launched FRDC’s new R&D Plan for 2005-10. Listening and refecting on all that was said both at the conference and in the breaks I am confident that the new plan has captured the issues and challenges facing the industry.

Importantly, the plan’s focus on sustainability, resource access, profitability, people development and the community provides the right emphasis for investing in change and the fishing industry’s future.

Please take the time to read the key points – we’ve provided a companion to the plan that summarises them and, importantly, establishes performance indicators so you can judge our performance. Get a copy at www.frdc.com.au, or by phoning us.

FRDC assisted grassroots fishers to attend Seafood Directions from all around the country. Thank you to them for attending and for their feedback to me and the FRDC Board. Their optimism, passion and willingness to meet head-on the challenges and opportunities was refreshing.

Finally, to all who talked with me and FRDC staff, we very much appreciated your efforts. Ours is a people industry. We need to meet, we need to talk, because the important issues are common to us all and we must solve them collectively.

Good luck to the organisers of Seafood Directions 2007, Hobart. Now, let’s work together to ensure that by 2007 we are well on the way with the changes necessary to ensure that the contribution of the seafood community to Australia is recognised and the quality of its products is adequately rewarded at home and abroad. That’s what we must do. Now.

Patrick Hone
Executive Director, FRDC
phone 02 6285 0400

VMS in Qld is a fisher’s friend

SATELLITE-linked vessel monitoring system (VMS) and electronic logbook techniques from a continuing FRDC-funded project are providing new, fine-scale information on the location and extent of effort in Queensland trawl fisheries.

This has delivered three major fishery benefits already, says Co-investigator Norm Good, a fisheries modeller (stock assessment) with the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries:

• A map of total effort at one-minute scale – about one square nautical mile - for the entire Queensland coast. This, said Norm Good, had ensured a level playing field for all stakeholders in determining the final boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, when used by the Queensland Government in response to the draft Representative Areas Program undertaken by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to reduce trawl access.
• Evidence for a report to the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage detailing the percentage of trawl effort and gross value of production (GVP) removed from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This report was instrumental in developing a structural readjustment package for the east coast otter trawl fishery.
• A map produced for an internal trawl effort review that accurately defined effort in individual fisheries – and thus critical trawl grounds for all sectors - at the one-minute scale.

Norm Good said project 2002/056 had taken VMS beyond compliance by developing signatures that showed when and where individual vessels were trawling for scallops, eastern king prawns, or tiger and endeavour prawns.

The resulting information allowed resource distribution and trawl effort to be modelled using mathematical techniques, to improve stock knowledge and ecological sustainability. The trawl signatures had been further refined in collaboration with fishers to reduce uncertainty and develop reliable trawl track definitions that showed where a vessel had fished between VMS polling intervals.

The intensity of catch and effort also has been mapped by region and season at one minute spatial resolution, increasing the ability to manage fisheries for separate stocks at a fine spatial scale - and monitor the effects of management changes on these stocks.

An associated suite of portable software allows fisheries managers to map catch, effort and resource density. The project is due for completion by December next year.

MORE: Norm Good, phone 07 3817 9537; email, norman.good@dpi.qld.gov.au

Seafood leads with standard

SEAFOOD has become the first Australian food sector to have a compulsory production and processing standard.

The standard lays down risk assessment and management processes for the entire production and supply chain, beginning at the boat. Seafood businesses have to comply by May 2007.

The standard was initiated by industry through Seafood Services Australia and developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).

“It’s enforceable and a sign to local consumers and overseas markets that our industry meets the highest international standards,” said Australian Government Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald.

He said overseas exports had described the underlying scientific evaluation of the seafood supply chain as the world’s most comprehensive.

MORE: Seafood Services Australia, phone 1300 130 321.

A flat year for R&D dollars

INDUSTRY contributions to FRDC in 2004-05 equalled or exceeded the maximum amount matchable by the Australian Government in five of the eight fisheries jurisdictions.

However the total from industry — $6.57m - was virtually unchanged from the previous year’s $6.52m, say Directors in the Corporation’s 2004-05 annual report.

As the adjoining table shows, levy-paying Commonwealth fisheries were the leading contributor on a percentage basis, followed by New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

FRDC Exective Director Patrick Hone congratulated the fisheries and jurisdictions that had increased their funding in a tough year which, he said, had put significant pressure on most.

But he said with demand increasing for R&D in priority areas such as marketing, promotion and environmental reporting, industry should treat R&D contributions for what they were – an essential investment in the future of their businesses.

The annual report is available at www.frdc.com.au. Financial statements are at www.frdc.com.au/about/finance.htm

Board sets the 05-06 priorities

FRDC Directors have identified the following priorities in their annual report.

• The worth of eco-labelling will be evaluated in partnership with the Australian Seafood Industry Council and the National Aquaculture Council.
• AN R&D plan for recreational fishing to be developed this financial year.
• Options for establishing a national framework for seafood promotion will also be investigated – see story elsewhere in this edition.
• A workshop to explore ways to implement better fishery self-management or integrated management – and to reduce costs to industry by doing so – will be convened with industry and technical experts.

Directors say delivering on these and other initiatives they have developed will be FRDC’s priority in 2005-06. They say FRDC will have to listen to stakeholders and partner them to ensure the intended benefits to industry are achieved.

In 2004-05 the Board evaluated 135 applications for R&D funding – 36 fewer than in the previous year, thanks to rigorous screening by the Fisheries Research Advisory Bodies (FRABs) that resulted in only the most relevant applications being forwarded.

The Board approved funding for 64 of them – almost 50 per cent – which Directors described as a successful result, considering funds available for investment were down $2m on the previous year.

Final reports on completed R&D projects totalled 106 (122 previously) and 426 projects with a median value of $246,261 were under management (previously 494 projects with a median of $224,406).

Industry return rises a little

NATIONALLY, the industry contribution of $6.57m was 114 per cent of the maximum the Australian Government matched – the second successive year the national matchable percentage has been exceeded. In 2003-04 it was 109 per cent.

The bad news – the percentage increase was largely a result of a fall in the gross value of commercial fisheries production (AGVP). Matched government funding peaks at 0.25 per cent of AGVP.

Despite the slight monetary increase in industry contributions and a steady strengthening of project partnerships the annual value of R&D projects managed by FRDC fell by five per cent to $62.5m.

FRDC investment of $25.6m amounted to 41 per cent of the total. R&D partners contributed 59 per cent – $36.9m. The total amount leveraged represented $1.43 for every dollar invested by FRDC. For every dollar industry invested, its return averaged $3.89 – a rise of four cents on the previous year.

Reports triple bottom line

The FRDC has moved to an integrated triple bottom line reporting framework that will provide greater transparency on, and understanding of, how the FRDC operates. As the first stage of this process FRDC engaged Sydney University to undertake an analysis of the FRDC Secretariat functions (the running of the FRDC, staff, building etc.) and develop a TBL account for the Corporation.

The results of this analysis show that measured per dollar of output, FRDC performs much better than the private sector organisations in the wider economy in terms of all environmental indicators, including far above average in land disturbance and water use, and above average in greenhouse gas emissions andprimary energy use. FRDC’s performance was above average in government revenue and imports, however below average in exports and in gross operating surplus, and slightly below averagein terms of employment generated. Finally, FRDC’s linkages with the rest of the economy areweaker than those of other sectors.

Benchmarked only against the public services sectors, FRDC’s TBL performance was comparable with the average public service provider. FRDC’s performance is slightly above average in terms of all environmental indicators, but below average in terms of income and employment generation - given FRDC only employs ten staff this is hardly surprising.

Promotion body weeks away?

A national seafood promotion entity owned and operated by industry is expected to be running by December, its proponents say.

Its aim will be to promote Australian seafood to deliver a price premium.

This would be done as a promotional backdrop that would support but not conflict with the initiatives of industry sectors, Simon Bennison, Chief Executive Officer of the National Aquaculture Council, told Seafood Directions.

“We can’t do much about imports or the cost of fuel, but we can about driving profits,” said Sydney Fish Market Managing Director Grahame Turk.

Alex Kailis, Managing Director of MG Kailis, agreed: “Operational issues have to be dealt with, but they won’t make us successful.

“Strategic ones will. Let’s focus on them – the issues of success,” he urged the conference’s 300-plus participants. He said three steps were necessary:

• A united industry vision
• A strategy to deliver it
• Strategy execution and the dollars to fund it

Funding was easier to get if the strategy was good, Alex Kailis said.

Fellow leadership group member Ron Edwards, chair of the Seafood Enterprise Alliance, an industry group set up under the Australian Government’s National Food Industry Strategy, outlined his view of the path ahead:

A 3-tier corporation

• Board members
• Strategy group members
• Industry members

Funding

• Seed money from supportive seafood companies

Projects

• Domestic marketing
• Premium branding
• Promoting to USA, Japan, China, Europe

Vision, workshopped at conference

• Make seafood Australia’s national dish
• Identify Australian seafood as premium quality
• More than seafood – the Australian seafood experience
• Price makers, not price takers
• Position fishers and producers as primary producer heroes, respected by the Australian community
• Informed, educated consumers
• A prosperous and vibrant industry that young people want to join
• Inclusive, embracing the total supply chain, with all industry components coordinated

Approach

• Complement existing bodies

FRDC Executive Director Patrick Hone, who chairs the leadership group, said his R&D Corporation was keen to invest in projects aimed at improving industry profitability. To do so, he said, FRDC required consistent, unified advice that this was what industry wanted.

The leadership group comprises:

Patrick Hone FRDC (independent chair)
Alex Kailis Managing Director, MG Kailis Group, WA
Arthur Raptis Operations Manager, A Raptis and Sons, Qld
Bob Pennington Managing Director, Penningtons, SA
Grahame Turk Managing Director, Sydney Fish Market, NSW
John Jenkin Managing Director, Antipodean Projects, WA
Joseph Pirrello Managing Director, Ocean Fresh Fisheries, NSW
Mark Hancock Chief Executive Officer, Seafarm, NSW
Peter Fraser Managing Director, Lobster Australia, WA
Ron Edwards Chair, Seafood Enterprise Alliance, ACT
Stuart Richey Director, Richey Fishing Company, Tas
Debra Ferguson General Manager, Ferguson Australia, SA
Tony Murray Managing Director, MTC, Qld

MORE: www.seafoodpromotion.com

FRDC’s R&D plan for 2005-10

SOON, seafood will be bar-coded before being sent to markets world-wide.

Potential retail consumers will use their mobile phones to scan the code, read the name and location of the fisher, the enterprise that owns the boat, time and place of catch and details of subsequent handling. That information will influence the decision to buy or not to buy.

So says FRDC, explaining why its new five-year R&D plan – Investing for Tomorrow’s Fish 2005-10 – takes a 20-year view.

Precision buying that turns supply chains into demand chains is being tested already in Australia and overseas.

With the consumer as king, FRDC says the challenge for the Australian seafood industry will be to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability in meeting customer expectations and a demand for more fish.

In Australia itself, FRDC predicts that demand will be driven by increasing affluence and an increased awareness of the health benefits of seafood.

However the commercial sector will continue to sell its premium products internationally to the highest bidders and by 2020, based on population projections, this could see up to 610,000 tonnes of seafood being imported annually to meet local demand.

FRDC believes that improving the quality and sustainability of recreational fishing will require a greater investment in people.

It says the success of its National Strategy for the Survival of Released Line-caught Fish has demonstrated the importance of communication and people development.

It predicts that the demand by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders for access to wild stocks will continue and outlines ways to better integrate the indigenous sector into fisheries R&D.

Against this background, FRDC and its stakeholders have identified five strategic challenges and the Corporation has established three R&D programs to meet them – see boxes opposite.

MORE: Patrick Hone, FRDC Executive Director, phone 02 6285 0400; email patrick.hone@frdc.com.au; download five year plan full or condensed versions from www.frdc.com.au

5 strategic challenges

1. Natural resources sustainability
   • Maintain and improve management and use of aquatic natural resources to ensure their sustainability.
2. Resource access and allocation
   • Optimise resource access, resource allocation and opportunities for each sector of the fishing industry, within a rights-based framework.
3. Response to demand; profitability
   • Respond to and take advantage of increased demand for seafood and for recreational and customary fishing.
4. People development
   • Develop people who will help the fishing industry meet it future needs.
5. Community and consumer support
   • Increase community and consumer support for the benefit of the three main sectors of the fishing industry.

Plan lite

FOR the first time, FRDC is offering a short, Companion version of its five year plan that provides a quick, easily-absorbed version on future directions in the Australian fishing industry and the R&D strategies that will underpin them.

Both versions may be downloaded fromwww.frdc.com.au. For hard copies, phone FRDC on 02 6285 0400.

Plan passes the politician test

“IT’S understandable. It passed the politician test.

“If a politician can read it, anyone can,” said Australian Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald, describing FRDC’s new R&D Plan 2005-2010 as “a fabulous document” that mapped the work of FRDC and the industry as a whole.

In launching the plan he put particular emphasis on its five strategic challenges, particularly profitability, people development and community and consumer support. Profitability was essential, he said, but so too was a strategy to develop skilled people, without whom industry would not have a future. Winning the support of the community also was a necessity if the sea-based industry was to avoid problems in what he described as an increasingly picky world.

Keep us honest, asks FRDC

KEEP us honest, FRDC Executive Director Patrick Hone asked industry representatives at the launch of the Corporation’s new five year R&D Plan, Investing for tomorrow’s fish.

“In the plan’s Companion we say how FRDC will perform. We ask you to make sure we live up to the promise. “We are very keen to be measured on our performance. We need to get traction – to make sure we’re making a difference to your lives.”

Patrick Hone thanked people Australia-wide for their help in compiling the plan, which was developed through lengthy industry consultation.

Hard copies are available from FRDC, phone 02 6285 0400 and electronic copies from www.frdc.com.au.

Aussie Jayne heads up IAFI

Australian seafood specialist Jayne Gallagher has been elected President of the International Association of Fish Inspectors (IAFI), an association of professionals who deal with seafood safety and quality around the world. IAFI’s ultimate goal is to ensure that safe, quality seafood is available worldwide. It works in partnership with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Industry Development Organization and also contributes to World Trade Organisation negotiations.

Now Business Development Manager at Seafood Services Australia, Jayne Gallagher has helped post-harvest businesses across the nation identify and adopt safety and quality standards tailored to their individual operations. Her IAFI appointment is for two years.

Old heads’ new trawl solutions

A COMBINATION of industry and scientific know-how looks like reducing the impact of prawn trawls on the sea floor – and improving the fuel economy of the trawlers pulling them.

Queensland prawn fisher David Sterling of Sterling Trawl Gear Services and Australian Maritime College fishing technologist Steve Eayrs have used their combined 40-plus years’ experience of trawl design and performance to lead FRDC project 2004/060, which has made and tested two modifications they describe as “exceptionally encouraging”.

In the first, the existing ground chain has been replaced by what its designers call a soft brush, consisting of a floated HD polyethylene rope with short, light, chains dangling vertically from it.

“A conventional ground chain slides over the seabed to stimulate prawn movement into the approaching trawl.

“Our floated ground rope passes clear of the seabed and prawns respond either to the approaching float-rope combination or to the danglers as they brush past. In this way the chains ride over seabed objects rather than slice across the surface of the seabed,” said David Sterling.

The flume tank at the AMC in Launceston was used to fine-tune the balance of forces acting on the new ground gear, set up its correct position relative to the seabed and establish the effect of trawl speed on its configuration.

Better otter board

The second modification from this collaborative project that also involves the University of Queensland and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries is a new, environmentally-friendlier otter board.

“Most otter boards have an angle of attack of about 40 degrees to ensure they remain stable during deployment, fishing and retrieval,” David Sterling said.

“The new batwing boards retain this stability, but with a much lower angle of attack that generates less drag and less seabed contact.”

During the trials, wing-end spread and trawl drag were measured for each configuration at 2.5 knots and 3.0 knots.

Initial engineering results show the new boards produce about 10 per cent higher spread with an overall reduction in drag of 25 per cent. An estimation of efficiency suggests that the lift to drag ratio is about 200 per cent higher than that of conventional flat boards – a good result, say the designers, considering the trawl gear is being stretched to about 88 per cent of its headline length.

AMC-designed underwater cameras were used to monitor the operation and geometry of the otter boards and ground gear.

Positive first results

The collaborators said from trawl shots made off Fraser Island it appeared catches of both prawns and scallops were not substantially affected by the use of the soft brush ground gear.

The modification did not seem to markedly affect retention rates of other catch components either – including the range of benthic material in the trial area.

There were variable differences in prawn catch between the new otter boards and conventional ones and a close inspection of the data will be made to establish the significance of the results.

However, the collaborators say it was clear that traditional flat boards caused a marked increase in benthic material retained in the prawn net. This was reduced if 2m long sweeps were inserted between the boards and the net, but nevertheless the results clearly showed that the traditional boards caused a much larger disturbance to the sea floor. Although longer sweeps substantially reduced the amount of benthic material retained behind the big flat boards, the catch of fish bycatch increased significantly.

MORE: David Sterling, phone 07 33001105; email djstgs@tpgi.com.au

Is retail’s future a secret?

IS this the future of seafood retailing in Australia?

A single, small outlet in the food court of the Garden City Shopping Centre at Booragoon, towards the seaward end of the Perth-Fremantle sprawl?

Is its creator, Paul Catalano, the prophet who will lead nervous, unconfident consumers out of a dripping and somewhat smelly ice age of grey fillets, sunken eyes and gaping mouths?

Let’s hope so. The origin of Seafood Secrets, he says, was “a passionate desire to dispel myths, eliminate confusion and fulfil the often-disappointed expectations of seafood lovers”. Its points of difference:

• No leaks, no odours. Hygiene absolute. Eyes closed, you wouldn’t know it’s a seafood store
• All seafood, chilled and frozen, portioned and pre-packed in ‘quality-lock’ plastic, from live mussels and red bullseye fillets to fishheads and frames
• Labels in eight colour-codes to supplement price and species information. Choose from mega-omega, smart buy, chilled, never frozen, heat ‘n’ run…
• A second level of shelf colour-coding to guide self-selection, with progressive pointers to choosing your fish, pre-cooking and cooking options, finishing flavours and side dishes
• Customer touch-screen printouts, cooking demos three days a week and regular workshops

“It’s retail R&D in motion,” said the 37-year veteran of seafood processing, wholesaling and exporting - now a somewhat reluctant retailer.

The move to retail was spurred by his belief that “there has to be an alternative that gives consumers confidence, now that specialty seafood stores are a thing of the past in major shopping precincts and the primary window to the public is the supermarket”.

“In our business we spent years developing quality and consistency from boat to factory, so we could systemise them and grow.

“So there we were with a product that had been nurtured from boat to retailer, but at the retail point there were variables beyond our control.

“We also weren’t getting a return for our quality – not because consumers weren’t prepared to pay – we just couldn’t penetrate the market to win the confidence of the consumer. The critical buying decision was in the hands of the retailer.

“We also knew from experience that retailing wet fish well required a high level of sales and stock management expertise, but even then the changes caused by seafood reacting to the retail environment wouldn’t allow us to deliver the consistency we had achieved to that point.

“Selling ‘fresh’ seafood that is deteriorating by the hour in a retail outlet is harming our industry.”

Hence Seafood Secrets – Paul Catalano’s way of delivering consistency from boat to consumer by locking that straight-from-the-water quality into sealed packs containing customer-friendly portions; and labelling them to communicate with the customer truthfully, helpfully and consistently.

“More eco-friendly too. We use less packaging by doing it once only – at the source.”

Going it alone

As R&D, it’s been costly. “We were unsuccessful with a first application for R&D funding through the National Food Industry Strategy, so we decided not to seek support from any other agency as it would slow our project and demand internal resources we didn’t have.

“And there were too many facets to our concept to marry into a single funding application – from the boat, through the factory processes, to the development of packaging and quality retention.

“This, before we even started on the strategy for retail design, equipment and delivery. The project kept evolving and it wouldn’t have been flexible if we were working with support funds.

“Now it’s different. We can pinpoint the obstacles we want to overcome and we’ll be looking for whatever support we can muster.

“We would particularly welcome help with marketing to educate consumers in two major areas – on the quality and food safety aspects of fresh fish in a pack and the repositioning of frozen local seafood as a quality, convenience product.

“The industry has made enormous inroads into improving harvest and post-harvest practices. Is it not time now to capitalise on this work by educating the consumer about the benefits of choosing local?”

Re-inventing fresh

For fresh fish, the Seafood Secrets challenge has been to re-position it in the market through consistency, convenience and quality retention.

“These things should be a given, just as they are for many other foods.

“Consumers don’t buy a carton of fresh milk with a use-by date, drink it and say ‘wow, what a great bit of milk that time’.

“They have an expectation. They have been conditioned to a standard. They don’t have to think: what was the quality like?

“It can be the same for fresh seafood. Why should consumers have to evaluate: where will I buy, what’s it going to be like, am I being told the truth, does it have bones, how will I cook it?

“Sure, there will always be those who love the romance of the wet fish market. But let’s get real.

Most people shopping for their families want to know they are buying safe food that meets their expectations – and just get on with it. They shouldn’t have to be seafood experts.”

Seafood Secrets is working its way towards black ink, buoyed by the response from a growing clientele hooked on the benefits. Along the way, there have been surprises.

“We thought a primary market would be busy double income families. But they’ve been outnumbered by retired people, many of them now singles, who say they find the convenience and economy of portions irresistible.”

The Seafood Secrets offering is overwhelmingly Australian, ranging from Queensland (fresh) prawns to Tasmanian salmon. But if it can’t be supplied locally and customers want it, Paul Catalano will stock it. Hence rudderfish, whitebait – and shrimps from Iceland. All pre-packaged, all in open-top temperature-controlled cabinets around three walls of an outlet with a floor space of just 70 square metres.

“When we opened in February this year I was nervous, waiting for customers. One of the first was an Asian woman, clearly knowledgeable - she knew what she was about.

“When she made a selection and brought it to the counter I saw it was a pack of heads and frames. There was this sense of relief and I thought: ‘Yes! We’re on the right track.’”

MORE: Paul Catalano, phone 08 9379 3044; email paul.c@catalanoseafoods.com.au; www.seafoodsecrets.com.au.

NEXT edition: If fresh is best, why frozen should be chosen.

Australia’s best on show

The FRDC were one of the fourteen rural research and development corporations showcasing Australia’s best food and fibre at parliament house. The day long event culminated in the awarding of the Australian Government Prize for Rural Innovation.

The day saw industry leaders from across all agricultural sectors rubbing shoulders with politicians to raise awareness of the value of R&D to the rural sector.

Key events during the day included a number of presentations and a ‘hypothetical’ forum hosted by Adam Spencer. Former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fisher and Terry Sheares (coordinator for the Corish Reference Committee on Agricultural Policies and Programs) were two of the notable presentations of the day. The afternoon forum brought together a range of stakeholders to discuss the future of the agricultural industries and the value of R&D. Panelists included:

• Adam Spencer
• Peter Corish - NFF,
• Deborah Thomas – Editor Australian Women’s Weekly
• Jim Peacock – Australian Academy of Science
• David Russell – University of Tasmania
• Joanna Hewitt – Secretary Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry
• Terry Enright – Chair of Council of RDC chairs.

One of the key aspects of the day was the showcasing of Australia’s food and fibre. The event showed, through innovative food and fibre products, how Australian’s are benefited from R&D in many aspects of their daily lives.

FRDC’s Communications Manager, Peter Horvat played a significant role in coordinating the food for the event and engaging the services of celebrity chef Luke Mangan and the Lexus Young Chef of the year Finalists. The fishing industry would be pleased to note that seafood featured heavily in the menu, including Sydney rock lobster, Hiramasa yellowtail kingfish, scallops, ocean trout, snapper, Atlantic salmon, and tuna.

Again the seafood industry figured prominently in the running for the Prize for Rural Innovation with the FRDC research project on farming Southern Bluefin Tuna one of the four short listed finalists. The eventual winner was a cotton project which had an estimated $5 billion to the Australian cotton industry.

Prawners getting it together

AUSTRALIA’S major ocean prawn fisheries have begun work on a strategy to stamp their combined identity on domestic and world markets.

A steering committee set up by the recently-formed Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries (ACPF) will investigate issues such as:

• What do we want to achieve, nationally and internationally?
• How do we do it?
• What are our combined strengths in the market?
• Can we establish a single identity when our species and fisheries differ?
• Can wild-harvest be positioned as a marketing advantage?
• Does eco-labelling work and, if so, how and where?

The initiative will be funded by FRDC and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry through its Industry Partnerships Program.

The ACPF says it also will ask FRDC to help fund case studies into the potential for self-management in three prawn fisheries: Spencer Gulf and West Coast in South Australia, Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia and the Commonwealth Northern Prawn Fishery.

The steering committee will report to an industry reference group that in turn will liaise with participating members. Steering committee members are:

• David Crichton A Raptis & Sons, harvesting-processing company, Qld
• Barry Evans Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association, SA
• Neal Harris Processor, Global Seafoods, Qld
• Stephen Hood MG Kailis, harvesting-processing company, WA
• Les Lowe Commercial Fisher, Qld
• Darren Ward Commercial Fisher, NSW

The proposal envisages each fishery and its regulators defining their individual self-management objectives and standards.

MORE: Martin Smallridge, ACPF interim Executive Chair, phone 08 8357 8545, email martin.smallridge@corvel.com.au.

People development, a new approach

The Review

FRDC has commissioned a review of the fishing industry’s people development strategies and programs to assess whether they meet current needs and how they can be enhanced to support future industry directions.

For the purpose of this review, the industry is defined in its broadest sense to include the taking/culturing, processing, storing, transporting, marketing and sales of seafood.

The consultants are seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders in the commercial, recreational and traditional sectors as well as from government, education, research, environmental organisations and other interested parties.

The consultants will propose changes and enhancements to people development activities that are relevant to:

• the broader needs of the industry
• the particular roles and responsibilities of the FRDC.

Some issues

• What people development activities do you know about that work well?
• What gaps in people’s current knowledge and skills limit the growth of fisheries businesses and/or the industry as a whole?
• What future industry directions and developments will create additional people development needs?
• What factors may limit the industry’s ability to meet its current and future development needs?
• What new, or enhanced, people development strategies would be most effective in supporting industry development?
• What actions should FRDC take to promote, support and initiate people development?

To provide input to the review follow the people development link on the FRDC website.

How do isolated groups survive?

MOST reef fishes have a pelagic life history stage during which larvae spend days to months in the open ocean before recruiting to a reef environment.

During this period the larvae may drift hundeds to thousands of kilometres from the reef where they were spawned. Nevertheless, self-replenishing populations return to the reef they originated from after their pelagic larval stage.

Determining the degree to which marine populations are sustained by self-replenishment or dispersal of larvae from external sources is one of the great challenges facing marine ecologists.

Populations of endemic reef fish are, by definition, self-replenishing. In contrast, populations of more widespread species are likely to be replenished by dispersal of planktonic larvae from other sources.

Consequently, life-history comparisons between endemics and non-endemics can identify which traits facilitate local replenishment.

This comparison, however, assumes that differences are not due to unique evolutionary histories - species are closely related - and that gene flow among non-endemic populations is sufficient to prevent local adaptation of the same traits. My PhD research aims to:

• Determine which early life-history characteristics are associated with self-replenishment by comparing egg size, hatchling size, planktonic larval duration, size at settlement and larval growth rates of a group of coral reef fish endemic to Lord Howe Island to those of related species with a wide distribution that includes Lord Howe. My second and third aims will test the assumptions associated with this comparative approach
• Use phylogenetics to examine the evolutionary history of some of these endemic and non-endemic species to determine how closely related they are
• Use population genetics to investigate gene flow and genetic structuring in populations of some of the non-endemic species to determine if there is gene flow between populations or if each is a separate, self-replenishing unit

This study will fit a critical piece of information into the puzzle of how fish populations at some of Australia’s most isolated island territories are able to persist; and will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of self-recruitment in coral reef fishes.

Management strategies aimed at sustaining harvested populations and maintaining biodiversity will be more effective if policy-makers and managers know the degree to which local populations depend on local production.

MORE: Vanessa Thompson, email v.thompson@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Supermarkets will call tune

In three to five years, the two big Australian supermarket chains will buy 80 per cent of their seafood direct, bypassing wholesalers.

Quality will be a given. Prices will be competitive, Andrew Young, Business Development Manager of strategic adviser and consulting engineer Sinclair Knight Merz, told Seafood Directions.

And he offered a rationale on the supermarkets’ behalf – each chain had to be tough on quality, priceand delivery, or it would be vulnerable to the other one.

Recent experiences of fresh fruit and vegetable growers showed what the supermarkets would want to do with seafood suppliers.

At present, he said, seafood might be handled 21 times from source to supermarket.

“Both majors are re-engineering to automate ordering and store-friendly delivery.

They will expand and improve in-store presentation, employing knowledgable staff to communicate with seafood customers.”

For seafood wholesalers, the options were vertical integration, or diversification into a range of food services. Seasonality, Andrew Young predicted, would not be tolerated.

With prawns, for example, a supplier would be required to deliver year-round, seamlessly replacing locally-caught with interstate and overseas consignments to do so.

He rejected suggestions that the supermarkets would find it too hard to impose such a template on the seafood sector.

“It will be difficult. But they will get it right eventually,” he said.

In Britain, chilled rules

In British supermarkets, chilled seafood now accounts for 61 per cent of total sales, even though it is much dearer than its frozen alternative.

The reason, says Ed Garner, Communications Director of global market researcher TNS, is convenience.

“People have money. And when you put the right proposition to them, they’ll spend it.”

He told Seafood Directions his insights into British consumer choice came from more than 15,000 households in which the person buying the food used a TNS scanner to report the barcodes of each purchase before it was put into refrigerator or pantry.

In short, he said British families were richer and food, as a percentage of household budget, was cheaper than ever before. But women worked, time was precious and cooking had become a spectator sport – “we watch it on television”.

Fifty per cent of British women aged 17 to 24 did not cook anything from scratch, seven million Britons now lived alone – and for the past five years, seafood was the top-selling fresh protein.

The move from frozen to chilled, he said, was largely the result of unplanned shopping – making the decision for tonight’s meal today, without a shopping list, but with the money and the willingness to pay for convenience.

MORE: Andrew Young, www.skmconsulting.com; Ed Garner, email ed.garner@tns-global.com.

New deal for NSW fishers?

Beleaguered New South Wales commercial fishers will own shares, rather than licences, in their fisheries in a new deal outlined by state Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald.

Opening the national Seafood Directions conference in Sydney, he said the shares would be tradeable and their owners would have a greater say in management under reforms he expected to be rolled out fully by next year.

Ian Macdonald said NSW also was reviewing commercial fishing fees in an effort to lighten the burden that fishers were carrying. Buy-backs unaccompanied by further removal of commercial access were being considered too.

He acknowledged that the NSW commercial sector was being squeezed by coastal development in a process that put fishing interests at the end of the development chain; further complicated by an upsurge in localised opposition from retirees who had moved to the seaside.

Wearing a second, new, hat as National Resources Minister, he said he looked forward to tackling these problems in collaboration with the fishing industry.

“If wonderful holiday and retirement developments are hitting the fishing industry, then environmental sustainability planning is out of kilter,” he said.

Index to gauge shelf life

Sensory assessment charts that will allow seafood handlers to objectively gauge the freshness and shelf life of 12 mainstream domestic species will be available soon from the Sydney Fish Market.

The quality index, as it is called, developed in FRDC project 2003/237, uses a demerit points system based on odour and the condition of indicators such as eyes, skin and gills. As a service to its sellers and buyers, the fish market is already using the index to grade eight species prior to sale:

• Snapper
• Australian Sardines
• Tiger flathead
• Atlantic salmon
• Sea mullet
• Spanish mackerel
• Goldband snapper
• Cooked black tiger prawns

It is working with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries to develop indexes also for yellowtail kingfish, barramundi, pink ling and cooked king prawns.

Principal Investigator Mark Boulter told Seafood Directions a user manual nearing completion would allow the index to be used more widely to evaluate freshness, expressed numerically and correlated to shelf life. FRDC says widespread adoption of the index would improve product quality and allow sellers and buyers to ask for correspondingly higher prices.

MORE: Mark Boulter, phone 02 9004 1128; email markb@sydneyfishmarket.com.au.