R&D News

  Volume 14, Edition 1

Environment – the big winner

“It’s shaping as a useful demonstration of how proposed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can be adjusted to minimise their impact on the fishing industry, without sacrificing biodiversity values of the system.”

Principal Investigator Colin Buxton is speaking part-way through an urgently-convened investigation, funded by FRDC and Department of Primary Industry, Water and Environment to independently assess the impacts of proposed MPAs in Australia’s south-east bio-region. The report gauges the impact on fisheries including:

• Tasmanian scallops
• Commonwealth orange roughy
• Commonwealth auto-longlining
• Commonwealth southern shark
• South Australian Rocklobster
• Giant Crab

“For the MPA network as a whole, it’s clear about 90 per cent of the impact would be on Tasmanian-based seafood operations.

Banks-Seamount impact

 “As proposed, the Banks Strait and Offshore Seamounts MPA would have the most significant effect,” said Colin Buxton, Director of the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute (TAFI), who has previously led Australia’s most thorough scientific investigation into the relevance of MPAs to fisheries management.

 “One of the most significant impacts of the Banks-Seamounts MPA would be on the Tasmanian scallop fishery, which stands to lose an estimated 4,000t a year and see its successful and sustainable ‘paddock’ harvesting strategy compromised.

The proposed Banks-Seamounts boundaries would also exclude fishing from historically-significant nearshore Commonwealth trawl areas.

“Here, the solution is a boundary change,” Colin Buxton says.

The proposed MPAs would also exclude shark fishing on the Bass Basin grounds targeted mainly by Tasmanian and Victorian-based fishers, but otherwise, the researchers believe, the impacts on Victorian, South Australian and New South Wales fishers are expected to be less pronounced.

Supported by an expertise-based project team, Colin Buxton has examined all 14 MPAs put forward by the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) and assessed their impact in a way that could be substantiated by hard facts.

The project has done this by identifying areas of importance to the fishing industry within and around proposed MPAs and quantifying the impact on industry if these are lost. 

The investigators also intend to review the effect of current fishing gear and practices on the environmental and ecological values under consideration.

They hope to identify environmentally-benign fishing methods that could continue within protected areas and believe the results will also better inform decisions on the structure and placement of MPAs.

Mutual benefits

The concept of planning MPAs to provide mutually-beneficial outcomes is not new. The areas proposed by DEH already provide for oil and gas exploration and, presumably, development. 

The research team says including fishing values in this planning process would simply capitalise on an opportunity to conserve biodiversity, while providing a positive future for Australia’s primary industries.

Successful and complementary conservation and fisheries outcomes have already been achieved in South Australia in developing the Murray and Zeehan MPAs, brought about through detailed discussions between DEH and the fishing industry prior to defining boundaries. 

The current investigation intends to build on this achievement through continued collaboration between researchers, FRDC, DEH and the Australian fishing industry.

Colin Buxton’s report is available
for free from the FRDC website
www.frdc.com.au

MORE: Colin Buxton colin.buxton@utas.edu.au, phone 03 6227 7256

FRDC Project 2005/085

MPAs’ potential impact

Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH)  will also be asked to consider the results of a recently-completed TAFI R&D project that shows Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) do not offer much benefit to many well-managed fisheries.

“This is particularly so for species that don’t move about much, such as abalone and rock lobster.

“And in fisheries managed under total allowable catch (TAC), MPAs may actually put pressure on the stock, unless TACs are reduced to compensate for the grounds they lock away,” Colin Buxton said.

“As well, shifts in effort resulting from closures can lead to stock depletion in adjacent waters and interfere with stock rebuilding, a strategy for most of our lobster fisheries in Australia.”

These are among the findings of FRDC project 1999/162 Evaluating the effectiveness of MPAs as fisheries management tools, that he wants DEH to consider.

The researchers’ reading of the DEH proposal leads them to suspect that these and other consequences were not fully understood, but they are heartened that DEH has welcomed the current investigation and the new light it will throw on the appropriateness of MPA boundaries and classifications.

“The network as proposed is based on imperfect knowledge. It uses a geomorphic model of seabed features as a surrogate for biodiversity.

“The relationship between geomorphology and biodiversity is not well understood,” Colin Buxton said.

“Above all, it doesn’t identify a key threat to biodiversity from the fishing activities it seeks to exclude.

“On the contrary, DEH has previously given its seal of approval to these fisheries under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the Australian Government says, with considerable justification, that our sustainable management of fisheries is the best in the world.

“There’s an apparent contradiction here.”

FRDC: Just the facts

“Knowledge should inform decision-making,” said FRDC Executive Director Patrick Hone, explaining why the Corporation has funded the project led by Colin Buxton’s project team into the marine protected areas proposed for the South-east Bio-region.

 “It was important that a sound scientific analysis was undertaken to ensure stakeholders had a common understanding of the proposal and the impacts of the proposed MPAs,” Patrick Hone said.

 “We believe there is a role for science to provide objective data on the possible impacts on the fishing industry. Therefore we undertook to work with state and Commonwealth to provide the best information with which to inform these discussions.

“The role of science is to investigate and report the facts. In this case it is the immediate and future impact on catches and the seafood supply chain and the impact on the people involved that had to be assessed.” “DEH has welcomed this.

“Our report is to the Australian Seafood Industry Council and its commissioning is endorsed by ASIC, industry peak bodies in the three affected states and the three state management authorities.”

Patrick Hone said FRDC existed to make a difference. It had a duty to invest in R&D that improved the seafood supply chain and helped ensure that decisions were based on accurate information.

MORE: Patrick Hone, phone 02 6285 0400; email patrick.hone@frdc.com.au

Fishers’ figures

Fishers have come forward with tax returns, BAS statements and, in some cases, their accountants to provide the hard economic evidence that has helped form the backbone of the Buxton report.

“It’s been a great response,” said Colin Buxton. “And necessary, because all evidence we put forward must be verifiable.

“We have excellent spatial catch information from the three state jurisdictions and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority for the past five years. But the timeframe is very tight.

“The DEH deadline allows us only five weeks for the entire project, so the socio-economic picture won’t be as broad as we would wish but, thanks to the industry response, it will be adequate.”

See also Will Mure to DEH: Why? page 20.

FRDC MPA team

The research team for FRDC project 2005/083 combines skills in MPA research, catch data analysis and modelling, economic valuation and social impact assessment. Its members:

Colin Buxton       TAFI Director      

Malcolm Haddon TAFI modelling

Matt Bradshaw    University of Tasmania

Expertise has also been co-opted from industry specialists, social scientists and economists, including:

James Larcombe  BRS

David Galeano         ABARE

Gerry Geen                Fisheries Economic Research Consultancy

Ian Knuckey            Fishwell Consulting

Gail Richey                Commonwealth Fisheries Association

Sean Sloan                  PIRSA

Dallas d’Silva           PIRVic

Ed Smith                    Tasmanian Fishing Industry Council

Ross McGowan      Seafood Industry Victoria

Roger Edwards     Seafood Council (SA) Ltd

Jeff Moore          ASIC

Crispian Ashby    FRDC

A broader reference group comprises fisheries directors and industry peak body representatives from the four jurisdictions affected and a representative of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF). The project has been undertaken in consultation with DEH and DAFF.

Abetz calls for changes

The Australian Government Minister for Fisheries and Conservation, Eric Abetz,  has made it clear he will not accept the restrictions on the fishing industry proposed by DEH.

He was speaking after receiving the FRDC-initiated report from TAFI Director Colin Buxton.

“Based on my initial reading, it is clear that changes will need to be made to the current MPA proposal,” he said.

“What we need is a sensible, balance between fishing and the environment, similar to that achieved in the forestry sector.

“This scientific study of the impact of the proposed MPAs will be an invaluable resource to the Howard Government as we strive to effectively balance the needs of fishing and conservation”, he said.

“While we’ll need to go over the details of the proposal very carefully, its clear the report makes a very important contribution to the debate.”

Eric Abetz said the Australian Government would consult stake-holders including the commercial and recreational fishing industry, oil and gas interests and environment groups before determining MPA boundaries in the south-east bio-region.

Good Job, Well Done, Ian

I was sorry to learn of Senator Ian Macdonald’s departure from his job as Fisheries Minister.

I have known Ian for at least 10 years, from the time I was Chair of the Wet Tropics Management Authority based in Cairns.

Ian was a great help to his senior Minister, Robert Hill (then in the Environmental portfolio) and me in getting the much-delayed management plan accepted by the local community, and the Commonwealth and Queensland state parliaments.

As Fisheries Minister, Ian’s hard-working and pragmatic approach was certainly welcomed by people like myself, who have had a life-long professional interest in fisheries. 

Just before Christmas 2005, Ian put in place the $220 million restructuring and marine protected areas compensation package for the south-east fisheries.

This was, not to overstate it, brilliant compared to the original no-compensation for the Great Barrier Reef fishers.

Ian also pursued with vigour and reasonable success the overseas fish thieves plundering our waters.

It is early days yet on this one and I hope the new Minister will be as committed to it as Ian was.

Ian leaves the Cabinet as a young man, both I and the Prime Minister are older, hence he has a long future and a choice of interesting pursuits.

All the best, Ian.

Professor Tor Hundloe

FRDC Director

Applications approved for 05-06

FRDC will fund the following projects in 2005-06.  They were approved after the previous R&D News went to press.

ID          Project title            Organisation            Contact           Phone            Date

Natural Resources Sustainability

Industry Development

People Development

AMC and UTas affiliate

The University of Tasmania (UTas) and the Launceston-based  Australian Maritime College have made an in-principle decision to affiliate, as the first step towards a merger in three years.

The UTas publication UniTas says the move has received strong Australian Government backing. It quotes then Education Minister Brendan Nelson as saying there would be no loss of financial support. The AMC, post-affiliation, would retain its status as the national maritime institute and continue to be funded accordingly.

UTas Vice-chancellor Daryl Le Grew said the proposed affiliation would improve Tasmania’s expertise in marine studies and result in a mutually beneficial combination of resources. AMC interim President Peter Boyce said a heads of agreement between the two would ensure that the AMC retained its distinctive mission and identity. AMC and UTas affiliate

THE University of Tasmania and the Launceston-based  Australian Maritime College have made an in-principle decision to affiliate, as the first step towards a merger in three years.

The UTas publication UniTas says the move has received strong Australian Government backing. It quotes then Education Minister Brendan Nelson as saying there would be no loss of financial support. The AMC, post-affiliation, would retain its status as the national maritime institute and continue to be funded accordingly.

UTas Vice-chancellor Daryl Le Grew said the proposed affiliation would improve Tasmania’s expertise in marine studies and result in a mutually beneficial combination of resources.

AMC interim President Peter Boyce said a heads of agreement between the two would ensure that the AMC retained its distinctive mission and identity.

Oyster secrets shared

“In three years we’ve leap-frogged from the 18th century to the 21st. We’ve learnt so much. It’s been such a positive experience”.

Sydney rock oyster grower – and Sydney-based retailer – Audrey Thors is speaking of a FRDC-funded project 2004/224 to reverse a decline in production of the indigenous oyster in New South Wales’ Clyde River.

Designed and run by international aquaculture researcher Ana Rubio, the three year project still has months to go and the outcomes are far from certain.

But talk to growers on the Clyde and they will tell you that after a brief bout of ‘Who is this person?’ the two parties engaged and the flow of benefits has been constant.

Audrey Thors’ sentiment is repeated – volunteered – by individual growers, from a Greek-born patriarch to a 20-something representative of a new generation.

Which is intriguing, considering that Ana Rubio’s R&D goal is, as the Yes Minister bureaucrats would say, courageous; and the project jury is still out. The researcher aims to:

• Identify every item that oysters eat in the Clyde, using stable isotope analysis
• Match these dietary components to the river’s available nutrients
• Determine why some parts of the Clyde estuary produce better oysters than others
• Develop a model that will allow growers to predict the optimal carrying capacity of the estuary as environmental conditions and nutrient flows fluctuate naturally

For the growers, these are still intangibles. Their championing of their researcher is based on two benefits they have derived along the way.

Direct sale

The first is the right to sell Sydney rock oysters direct from the river without depuration when the Clyde’s salinity level is high enough (30 ppt) – a major breakthrough that delivers a better, more profitable oyster and reduces water-to-market time by 36 hours.

“Ana on her own time helped us manage new protocols towards our direct harvest accreditation, talked to the NSW Food Authority on our behalf and gathered the evidence we presented to them,” said Audrey Thors.

The second benefit is to have shared, week by week, the knowledge Ana Rubio has progressively gained from almost three years’ work on and in the water. As a result, the growers know how the estuary works environmentally and ecologically.

How heavy rain drives a flow of nitrogen-based nutrients downstream from the forested national park that is the estuary’s backdrop and protector.

How these nutrients stimulate phytoplankton production and the resulting time-lags until the plankton become a banquet for the oysters and the oysters peak in growth and condition. How the complementary phosphates flow in the opposite direction – upstream, from the sea.

And, ultimately, how to put this ability to read the river to commercial benefit.

Communication the key

Throughout, the key has been communication. Week-after-week, month-after-month two-way communication.

“When I come down now (from Canberra, two hours away) I budget for an extra day talking with the growers,” Ana Rubio said.

Her greatest satisfaction and, she conjectures, perhaps her future career spring from this human interaction and the knowledge she is doing something beneficial for other people.

“I’m confident we’ll identify every item the oysters eat and I think we know why some parts of the industry grow better oysters than others.

“As well, we’ve determined that stocking at high densities reduces oyster condition but not shell growth – and I’ve done some comparative studies in the Shoalhaven estuary too.

“So will we be able to create a reliable model to predict optimal variations in carrying capacities? At this moment, I don’t know.

“But I do know the Sydney rock industry has been declining for 30 years.

“And with the growers on the Clyde I’ve made a start to reversing that 30-year decline.”

MORE: Ana Rubio,

phone 02 6246 5589;

email ana.rubio@csiro.au

The researcher

Ana Rubio graduated as a marine zoologist in her native Spain. She subsequently worked in Britain on European lobster aquaculture, completed a masters degree there in aquaculture and fisheries, then worked in Ireland on oysters.

She and her partner came to Australia in part to escape British Isles’ weather. Initially she worked as an unpaid volunteer on oysters for NSW Fisheries at Port Stephens.

After learning about the problems on the Clyde from Audrey Thors and intrigued that the causes of a long-term, state-wide decline in Sydney rock production had not been identified, she became a student again, applying for and obtaining a PhD scholarship at the Australian National University in Canberra, supervised by Ian White.

The FRDC-funded project on the Clyde is part of her PhD investigation. Her Canberra base is at CSIRO Land and Water, which provides laboratory facilities unavailable at the ANU’s Centre for Resources and Environmental Studies.

The farmers

There are only 22 oyster growers on the big, pristine Clyde River estuary at Batemans Bay. But some individual leases have been subdivided into three, suggesting that the number of oysters in the water at some locations has tripled. Consequently, some growers believe the estuary is overstocked.

Despite the partial protection of a national park, turbidity and siltation from elsewhere in the catchment are seen as a problem too and there is criticism that the NSW Government has not legislated for buffer zones to protect water quality.

On the plus side, the ability to sell direct from the water when salinity allows is welcomed, even though growers say the cut-off level is unnecessarily high.And hatchery spat has been a godsend.

“I can put them out as big as my fingernail and harvest them nine months later,” said Sid Pashalidis. Even so, production is falling and if the current R&D project confirms the growers’ suspicions, what then? Audrey Thors doesn’t hesitate.

“We must monitor environmental impacts and ensure that sedimentation is limited. We must use science to educate ourselves on stocking densities. Then we must self-manage as a group of 22. Ana’s model will
provide the tools.”

NSW oyster era ends

The 80 year old Oyster Farmers’ Association of NSW Ltd has entered voluntary liquidation to avoid insolvency, a victim of the industry’s decline.

Members made the decision at their final annual meeting in December with the utmost regret, said Chair Richard Roberts.

He said a collapse of oyster growing in the Georges and Hawkesbury rivers and a partial collapse at Port Stephens, together with a continual decline in NSW oyster production and farmer numbers, had reduced OFA membership to an unviable level.

It was difficult to borrow money to develop NSW oyster farms and therefore equally difficult to sell them, Richard Roberts said.

As a consequence the average age of farmers was estimated to be over 60 and most would die on their farms, or be forced off financially with little prospect of their farms forming part of a superannuation package.

Former members are being encouraged to join the Oyster Section of the NSW Farmers’ Association.

FRDC Executive Director Patrick Hone said the OFA had been an outstanding R&D partner and had made an enormous contribution to the Sydney rock oyster industry.

MORE: Richard Roberts, email rcbb-rob@bigpond.net.au

Recs: respect, involve us

THE challenge to scientists from the recreational fishing sector?

“Come and talk to us. In plain English. Respect and use our expertise. Involve us in your projects. Tap into our massive support base.”

This is the message from three of Western Australia’s recreational flag-bearers:

• Allan Bevan, who has made his hobby his business and now runs recreational charters for local and overseas fishers
• Garry Lilley, inventor of a release weight that is improving the survival of released reef fish
• Andrew Rowland, who is translating his love of the ocean and fishing into a PhD in fisheries science at Murdoch University

All three played major roles in a 2005 collaborative, FRDC-funded Project 2004/051, R&D exercise in which more than 270 recreational fishers worked with WA scientists to catch and tag almost 2600 samson fish from spawning aggregations off Rottnest Island.

They believe scientists and managers know enough about depletion of important WA recreational target species such as dhufish and snapper to educate the recreational sector and enlist its support for a recovery program.

“Rec fishers are eager to help and involvement instils a sense of stewardship and responsibility for the resource,” said Andrew Rowland. “And on issues such as survival of line-caught fish, the scientific knowledge exists.

Face to face

“The pressing need is for scientists – and managers too – to get out of their comfort zone to communicate it, face to face. It should be put on the job description.

“Our samson fish tagging succeeded because it was well organised and communicated by Principal Investigator Mike Mackie and his team from the Department (of Fisheries WA).” 

“I won’t have a scientist on my boat who’s not prepared to talk to my clients in plain English,” said Allan Bevan who, colleagues report, has collected and delivered countless otolith and other biological samples - supporting, along the way, at least six FRDC projects.

“The scientists who do communicate are usually still on board long after we’re back in port because my clients keep them there, absorbing their knowledge like sponges.”

So if that is the challenge to researchers and managers, what do recreational fishers see when they look in the mirror?

Privilege, not right

Garry Lilley: “Let’s start by acknowledging that rec fishing is a privilege. Not a right. That recreational licences instil a sense of responsibility. That this privilege is worth $150 a year to me. That we should be prepared to buy tags to kill fish that might have lived for 50 years or more.

“That fish must be respected, whether they are killed to eat, or measured and released to improve knowledge and management.” He continues: “If we insist it’s ‘a right’, what will be the right of my 10 year old daughter or Allan’s 11 year old son when they’re our age?

Garry Lilley’s passion is undisguised. With his family’s forbearance, it drives him to abandon his trade of ceramic tiling every summer to deckie for Allan Bevan on a survival wage.

Yes to quotas

“It’s that simple,” agrees Allan Bevan. “We want a sustainable resource for our kids and that puts the responsibility squarely on my generation. “So I ask myself: ‘Am I doing the right thing?’”

“We have to know the mortality rate of fish we release,” said Garry Lilley.

“Plus the stock assessment – if we can safely catch and release – play with them, but not hurt them too much,” said Allan Bevan.

“My R&D covers handling protocols,” said Andrew Rowland, “how to take a photo of the fisher with the trophy fish and still release it knowing it will survive.”

“For our generation it’s stark. Doing the right thing by the fish, or letting the resource go under. Denying the next generation what we have enjoyed, or driving a resource recovery,” said Garry Lilley. “We have serial depletion of our demersal finfish in WA – things really are pretty bad. Quotas? Has to be done.”

Use rec knowledge

“As part of this process, scientists and managers must plug into the knowledge of people like Allan and Garry,” Andrew Rowland said.

“In the west the key point is that Allan and Garry’s input has delivered new knowledge and the scientific questions are half-answered.

“This has to be exploited. We need scientists to ask guys on the water if they know the reasons for things that science shows are occurring.

“It’s not a question of where the knowledge comes from. Applying it is the thing. WA recreational fishers now number in the hundreds of thousands and, as Allan and Garry have said, many of us want to pass on a viable fishery to our kids.

“So it’s worth repeating: scientists need to talk to us in English - not jargon – and ensure our cooperation. And managers need to educate fishers more.”

MORE: Allan Bevan, Garry Lilley, email shikari@optusnet.com.au; Andrew Rowland, email andrew@recfishwest.org.au

It’s simple and it works

Garry Lilley’s release weight is a teardrop of heavy metal, cast around the shank of a barbless hook to take reef fish with pressure-related injuries back to a survival depth.

These injuries, grouped as barotrauma, result from gas expansion in the swim bladder and other organs when fish hooked at depths of 20m or more do not have time to adjust to changes in water pressure as they are pulled to the surface.

Without help they are unlikely to be able to return to a depth where the pressure would allow swim bladders to revert to normal size. Simply returned to the water, they drift away on the surface and die.

A recreational fisher using the release weight attaches it with a clip to the fishing rig, or to a second rod and reel or handline set aside for the purpose.

Then the barbless hook is put through the lip of the fish, fish and weight are lowered into the water and the weight is detached by a single tug on the line – and retrieved – after the fish has reached the bottom. Alternatively, a fish often recovers and frees itself on the way down.

“It’s like recompression for divers who have surfaced too fast,” said Garry Lilley. “And it puts territorial reef fish back in their own territory.”

The trio said evidence of success came from recaptures. Already about 10 per cent of 400 dhufish tagged and liberated with release weights during the past three years have been caught again.

“This is double the rate of the next best survival technique,” Allan Bevan said.

They said it took 10 years to convince fisheries scientists that the weight worked, but liaison between Recfishwest and the Department of Fisheries WA in 2004 had sparked a welcome change of attitude.

With the backing of the FRDC-funded national strategy for the survival of released line-caught fish, the release weight is also being used by Queensland reef fishers.

“At the most basic level, it helps sustain our sport,” said Allan Bevan.

“Above and beyond that is a duty to the fish. Every angler’s responsibility is to maximise the chance of survival of the fish they release.”

MORE: Allan Bevan, Garry Lilley, email shikari@optusnet.com.au

Release weights are distributed in WA by
Mako Tackle, phone
08 9274 5255.

Wrap for Allan

This email from Greg Seymour, General Manager of the Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association, to a colleague, FRDC Chairman Denis Byrne, was copied to R&D News:

SEA’s aim: seize profits

FRDC provided $129,000 to develop the business model being used to implement a marketing and branding strategy for the Australian seafood industry.

The development project, a collaboration between the Australian Seafood Industry Council and the National Aquaculture Council, was managed by NAC Chair John Jenkin as Principal Investigator.

The consultancy ACIL Tasman was contracted to develop, in consultation with industry, a draft business model to position Australian seafood in local and overseas markets and to recommend financing strategies to underpin Seafood Experience Australia (SEA), the company set up to manage the national promotion initiative.

For the first time the industry is working towards a common goal  – the promotion of Australian seafood

Meanwhile the industry leadership group that did the ground work to set up SEA has handed over to an interim, expertise-based board. Board members, chosen by a selection panel after expressions of interest had been called, are:

Chair: Ron Edwards, Seafood Enterprise Alliance, phone 08 9447 3880 0408 925 805; email redwards@iinet.net.au

Secretary, Bob Cox, Chief Executive Officer, Marine Culture, phone 03 6236 3000, 0418 338 797; email SEA@pecserv.com.au

Christopher Dockray, Chair, Tasmanian Salmonid Growers’ Association, phone 03 6334 3866, 0418 137 654; email cdockray@tassie.net.au

Debra Ferguson, General Manager, Ferguson Australia, phone 08 8346 8764, 0418 819 440; email debra@fergusonaustralia.com.

Peter Fraser, Executive Director, Marine Produce Australia, phone 08 9431 6355, 0411 267 507; email pfraser@vianet.net.au

Mark Hancock, Chief Executive Officer, Seafarm, phone 02 9356 5020, 0418 596 058, email mhancock@seafarm.com.au

Tim Hess, General Manager, Petuna Group, phone 03 6427 9033; email tjh@petuna.com

John Jenkin, Managing Director, Antiopdean Projects, phone 08 9335 2092, 0411 862 085; email antiproj@iinet.net.au

Alex Kailis, Managing Director, MG Kailis Group, phone 08 9239 9239; email alexkailis@kailis.com.au

Tony Murray, Managing Director, MTC, phone 07 3870 4975; email mtc1@netspace.net.au

Grahame Turk, Managing Director, Sydney Fish Market, phone 02 9004 1100; email grt@sydneyfishmarket.com.au

SEA taste experience

The board decided at its inaugural meeting to name the promotion body Seafood Experience Australia because market research showed that taste experience was regarded by seafood consumers as a key selection factor.

“For the first time, the seafood industry is working together towards a common goal – the promotion of seafood,” said Grahame Turk.

“Our focus will be to boost sales of Australian-caught and grown seafood. Already, about 15 major businesses have contributed to the corporation.

The next step is to build on this ground-swell to grow our membership.”

Ron Edwards said the board wanted to see sound strategies in place before committing to promotion, to ensure that the campaign to position seafood in the market was coherent and properly targeted.

He said an annual general meeting would be held at the end of the current financial year to elect a permanent board and endorse strategic and business directions for SEA.

MORE: SEA directors,
www.seafoodpromotion.com

Unite, abalone mob told

The Australian wild-catch abalone industry is in a precarious position, says consultant David McKinna et al in a market scoping study that confirms the sector’s worst fears.

Despite being the leading global producer with 50 per cent of wild catch production and 30 per cent of the total world market, the sector has been told to gets its act together through a united national strategy, or all participants will pay ‘a very high price’ in falling returns. McKinna says the sector is:

• Highly fragmented
• A deck of cards held together by phenomenal Chinese economic growth
• Lacking product and brand integrity
• Supply chain dysfunctional
• 20 years behind other Australian agri-food industries
• Not investing in its future If the volatile China trade were hit by bird flu or an economic downturn, the industry would be in immediate trouble. Fad-driven young Asians abandoning their parents’ traditional rating of abalone as a prestige product was a longer-term threat.

McKinna does not recommend an explicit national strategy, but outlines six options for consideration:

1. Product development, product integrity and industry development, funded by a compulsory R&D levy
2. Generic promotion and marketing funded by a compulsory market levy
3. Quality assurance and integrity, underpinned by an audited, Woolmark-style brand endorsement
4. A voluntary licensed brand for individual producers based on the success of the CalMex brand in attracting premium prices
5. Single desk selling through an industry company holding a sole export licence
6. Single desk importing – a mirror option in which all abalone is sold to an importing company established overseas to set prices and control distribution

McKinna says single desks are the most powerful options because they maximise industry control of the supply chain. But it says they are national solutions and the sector must not allow individual regions or product groupings — such as live or canned — to go it alone and thus create further fragmentation and internal competition.

Despite shying away from recommending a national strategy the report drops some heavy hints.

As a first step, it says, the sector should quickly develop a product quality and integrity system, because this is the necessary foundation for whatever reforms are to follow. Such a system’s ability to restrict the illegal trade would also appeal to industry and government sectors, including those that are potential sources of funds.

A logical second step would be to end supply chain fragmentation through single desk trading or a voluntary proprietary brand, with step three being a formal, well-funded market development and promotional program.

The report (FRDC Project 2005/231) was commissioned by the Abalone Council Australia Limited with FRDC funding.

MORE: David McKinna et al Pty Ltd, phone 03 9696 1966;

email: david.mckinna@davidmckinna.com.au. Report available at www.frdc.com.au

Rec R&D bounty

A Queensland recreational fishing tournament has become the first to contribute financially to Recfish Australia’s Research, Development and Extension (RDE) Futures program.

The Rocky Barra Bounty, held on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, contributed $500 to FRDC, expecting the Corporation to leverage it to at least double that amount.

Recfish CEO John Harrison said the tournament had been R&D-oriented since its inception seven years ago, releasing tagged barramundi to provide data on growth rates and movement patterns.

He said Recfish was pleased a tournament had put its hand in its pocket to demonstrate its belief that recreational R&D was a high priority, worthy of financial support – and hoped its example would be followed by others Australia-wide.

MORE: John Harrison,
phone 07 3356 1111;
email ceo@recfish.com.au; www.recfish.com.au.

Seafood eco-label

An industry guide on seafood eco-lablelling is being developed by the Australian Seafood Industry Council and the National Aquaculture Council, with FRDC help. The aim is to  inform seafood businesses of the pros and cons of environmental labelling options. The guide will encourage enterprises that decide to eco-label to adopt a third party certification scheme and show that  their seafood has been harvested in compliance with conservation and sustainability standards that meet  guidelines set by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The guide will soon be available at www.frdc.com.au.

MORE: Peter Horvat, phone
02 6285 0414

Profit in manager’s mix

Profit is to be assessed alongside stock levels and environmental concerns in future management of the Northern Prawn Fishery, in an attempt to maximise sustainability at all three levels.

Principal Investigator Cathy Dichmont of the CSIRO says this triple line management will be a first for an Australian fishery, moving the NPF beyond the traditional aim of maximum sustainable yield into the realm of maximum economic yield.

Other collaborators in the three-year FRDC-funded project (2004/022) are the NPF Management Advisory Committee, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), the Australian National University (ANU) and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA).

“The NPF is well positioned to pioneer this approach because prawn stocks are at a sustainable level, thanks to recent effort reductions,” Cathy Dichmont said. “In 2001, the fishery reduced effort to enable the recovery of tiger prawn stocks by 2006.

But the scientific advice given to fishery managers was based on biological grounds, not on what management action would be economically efficient. “As a result the fishery chose, among several options, a shortened season that put financial pressure on individual fishers. This was made worse by falling prawn prices, rising fuel costs, unfavourable exchange rates and competition from farmed imports.”

Under a new framework these problems will be tackled through annual assessments of management options for their impact on stocks, economics and the environment. Fishery managers will respond by adjusting input controls such as season length and gear capacity.

“The inclusion of economic targets usually results in a more conservationist approach to fishing,” said Tom Kompas of ABARE and the ANU.

“In times of economic difficulty, when prawn prices are down and costs are high, we must cut fishing effort - the more prawns in the ocean, the cheaper they are to catch. Conversely, when returns are higher and costs are down, we can afford to fish more.

“Operating a fishery beyond its maximum economic yield only generates too many boats and low profits,” he said.

During the past three years the NPF has generated an annual  average of about $100m by catching and exporting high-quality tiger and banana prawns to Asia.

MORE: Cathy Dichmont, phone 07 3826 7219;
email cathy.dichmont@csiro.au. Tom Kompas, phone
02 6125 6566; email
tom.kompas@anu.edu.au

New fisheries minister

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz is the Australian Government’s new Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation Minister, succeeding Queensland colleague Ian Macdonald who stepped down ahead of a ministerial reshuffle last month.

Eric Abetz, 48, was formerly Special Minister of State and, before that, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence. He entered parliament in 1994 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of fellow-Tasmanian Brian Archer.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, he was a Hobart-based barrister and solicitor before entering the Senate. He says he will work positively and actively for the future of Australia’s important fishing and forest industries.

The new Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is Sussan Ley, Liberal, an Albury, New South Wales-based Member of the House of Representatives. She replaces Tasmanian Richard Colbeck, who has been promoted.

Sussan Ley, 44, was formerly Parliamentary Secretary for Children and Youth Affairs. A wool and beef farmer with tertiary degrees in economics, taxation and accountancy, she was born in Kano, Nigeria, has worked as an air traffic controller, commercial pilot and shearers’ cook and was a Director of the Australian Taxation Office before entering parliament in 2001.

Welcoming Eric Abetz and Sussan Ley to their new portfolios, FRDC Executive Director Patrick Hone thanked Ian Macdonald and Richard Colbeck for what he described as their strong support for fisheries R&D.

Big marron boost profits

Marron farmers have been shown how to lift profit up to nine-fold by using the selective breeding techniques of FRDC project 2000/215.

Results are dramatic. On a well-designed and managed 50-pond farm, marron from the selective breeding program can:

•       Double yield from 1.5t per hectare per year to 3t
•       Increase internal rate of return from 8.24 per cent to 22 per cent
•       Improve return on capital from four per cent to 40 per cent
•       Lift annual profit from $20,722 to $189,130

As Australia’s biggest farmed freshwater crayfish, marron potentially will grow to 2.2kg.

But Principal Investigator Craig Lawrence of the Western Australian Department of Fisheries found commercial specimens were getting smaller rather than bigger because farmers were sending their biggest marron to market and breeding from slower-growing leftovers.

To reverse the decline, wild broodstock were collected from six WA river systems unrepresented on commercial farms.

The progeny of all six grew faster than their farm cousins. In what Craig Lawrence describes as a simple mass selection breeding program, the best more than doubled farm weights, growing up to 110 per cent faster in only two generations.

Five year trial

Breeding objectives established in consultation with growers were used by researchers to develop a selection index for a more complex pedigree breeding program that permitted simultaneous selection for multiple traits based upon economic merit – and better control of inbreeding.

To test the outcomes and transfer benefits the research team and farmers grew more than 147,000 marron to market size in 44 commercial ponds in WA and South Australia during five years of trials.

Fast benefit transfer

From five commercialisation strategies a fast, low-cost option was chosen: four categories of selected stock were distributed through an expression of interest tender process to commercial operators in both states who have the ability to maximise survival and mass-produce juveniles to sell to the broader industry.

This has also allowed maintenance of repository genetic lines held by the WA department and research partner the University of Western Australia to be reduced to a minimum.

Craig Lawrence said more than 10,000 marron were distributed as broodstock in the last two months of 2005, with demand outstripping supply for the best three of the four available categories.

MORE: Craig Lawrence, phone 08 9203 0221; email clawrence@fish.wa.gov.au

Aim to stay competitive

Because times are tough, it’s more important than ever that the next generation of seafood industry champions ensures the Australian seafood industry remains competitive, according to outgoing Australian Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald.

He was presenting certificates to 12 graduates of the 2005 Advance in Seafood Leadership Development Program, which is sponsored by FRDC with support from seafood companies and the Australian and state governments. FRDC Business Development Manager John Wilson said as well as providing younger participants with skills for the future, the program improved their understanding by introducing them to the current industry leaders and issues. The 2005 graduates are tabled below.

MORE: Program manager Cheryl Phillips 03 5825 1233.