9,431 results
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2012-046
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Informing the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch through assessing trends in bycatch of key Commonwealth fisheries

The purpose of this report is to inform the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch. In March 2012, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, announced the review of the Commonwealth Policy on Fisheries Bycatch, with the aim of improving the management of bycatch in...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
TAGS
Wild Catch
Fishing Gear
Bycatch

Completing Australia’s First National Bycatch Report

Project number: 2018-114
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $165,000.00
Principal Investigator: Steve J. Kennelly
Organisation: IC Independent Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 31 Dec 2018 - 30 Dec 2019
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Recreational Fishing
Modelling
Fishing Gear
Fisheries Management

Need

In the recently completed project 2015/208 “Developing a National Bycatch Reporting System”, we derived estimates of bycatch and discards for 4 case-study jurisdictions (with associated variances) as well as metrics regarding the quality of the data used. The jurisdictions done were New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory. But that work completed only half the story. This present project is to complete the task by applying the methodology developed in the previous project to the remaining 4 jurisdictions: The Commonwealth, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. By adding estimates from these jurisdictions to those derived earlier, this current project will produce the first complete, national bycatch report for the country. An advantage with this approach is that the new project will only cost a fraction of that of the previous project because most of the development work is complete. The result will be Australia's First National Bycatch Report and a process by which Australia's (and the world's) stakeholders can monitor and track Australia's management of bycatch. This should improve the standing of our fisheries internationally, to various eco-labelling organisations and the general public.

Objectives

1. Collect, synthesis and analyse catch, effort and bycatch data from the Commonwealth, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia
2. Derive bycatch estimates for general discards and ETP species, with associated variances and quality metrics for each jurisdiction
3. Combine the estimates from 2 above with those from the previous project to produce Australia's first National Bycatch Report

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9924930-9-7
Author: Steven J Kennelly
Final Report • 2020-11-30 • 378.05 KB
2018-114-DLD.pdf

Summary

Bycatch (non-targeted organisms that are unintentionally caught when fishing for particular species or sizes of species) remains an important issue concerning the world’s fisheries. Discards are considered the most important component of bycatch because they represent a perceived wastage of seafood resources as well as the potential to include Threatened, Endangered and Protected Species (TEPS), attracting significant interest and controversy from many stakeholders. There is now growing acceptance and international, regional and national agreements and instruments that encourage and/or require governments to report on the status of bycatches.

This report that arose from this project and its precursor “Developing a National Bycatch Reporting System” (FRDC Project 2015-208) constitutes Australia’s first national attempt to report on bycatch from its commercial fisheries. It is the result of the application of a 5-step methodology developed in the first project.
This project has yielded: (i) a baseline to be used by Australia in the future to track performance in managing discards, TEPS interactions and the quality of its bycatch information; (ii) the identification of key gaps in information where future work to monitor and reduce discards should focus; and (iii) a methodology that may be used by other countries and jurisdictions to estimate and report on bycatch to various entities and processes including stock assessments, Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management initiatives, FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, assessments by eco-labelling organisations, the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy and its Landing Obligation, as well as the most important stakeholders of all – the perpetual owners of all fisheries discards and TEPS – the general public.

Project products

Report • 2020-11-30 • 2.36 MB
2018-114 Australia's First National Bycatch Report.pdf

Summary

This report constitutes Australia’s first national attempt to report on bycatch from its commercial fisheries. It is the result of the application of the following 5-step methodology:
1. Identify all individual fisheries (and the fishing methods used in them) for each jurisdiction and the annual landings for each. Express these data as averages with associated standard errors (SEs).
2. Gather all available papers, reports and datasets on fisheries discards and TEPS interactions in each jurisdiction. From these, derive retained:discard ratios for each fishery/method and express these as averages (if multiple ratios exist) with associated SEs.
3. For those fisheries/methods that lack ratios in Step 2, identify and include any substitute ratios from similar fisheries/methods from other jurisdictions.
4. Multiply the average ratios from Steps 2 and 3 by the average landings data from Step 1 to obtain total estimated annual discards for each fishery/method and add these together to get jurisdictional totals with appropriate SEs.
5. Apply the steps in the USA’s Tier Classification Scheme 
 
This report has yielded: (i) a baseline to be used by Australia’s jurisdictions in the future to track performance in managing discards, TEPS interactions and the quality of bycatch information; (ii) the identification of key gaps in information where future work to monitor and reduce discards should focus; and (iii) a methodology that may be used by other countries and jurisdictions to estimate and report on bycatch to various entities and processes including stock assessments, Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management initiatives, FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, assessments by eco-labelling organisations, the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy and its Landing Obligation, as well as the most important stakeholders of all – the perpetual owners of all fisheries discards and TEPS – the general public. 
Environment
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-208
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Developing a National Bycatch Reporting System

Bycatch from fishing (the unintended, non-targeted organisms caught when targeting particular species or sizes of species) remains one of the most important issues concerning the world’s fisheries. And discards are considered the most important component of bycatch because they represent a...
ORGANISATION:
IC Independent Consulting Pty Ltd
TAGS
Threatened Endangered Protected Species
Stakeholder
Fishing Effort
Fisheries Management
Electronic Monitoring
Environment
Industry

Bycatch Solutions: a handbook for fishers in non-trawl fisheries "communications File"

Project number: 1998-201.90
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $11,392.00
Principal Investigator: Kylie Dunstan
Organisation: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
Project start/end date: 21 Jan 2002 - 23 Jan 2002
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Fisheries Management
Bycatch

Need

Dealing with bycatch is a high priority for industry, government and many interested stakeholders. It may not be necessary to research and develop new solutions in every fishery if existing approaches can be adapted by fishers (Refer Objectives 1 & 2 Section B4). This project will provide information to fishers in non-trawl fisheries on the options for handling bycatch problems used by fishers in comparable fisheries in Australia and overseas (Refer Objective 3 Section B9).

Further bycatch reduction work is needed for non trawl-net based fisheries, trap fisheries and various line fisheries. In the case of the Commonwealth fisheries there is now a policy driver for the preparation of bycatch plans. Many of the state managed fisheries are facing similar issues and bycatch control will have to be addressed through fishery management plans (Refer Objectives 4 & 5 Section B4).

Some of the solutions documented may be adaptable with few changes. Others may require more substantial changes, either to gear or to management arrangements. In the case of the latter, the identification of specific assessments needed will assist the prioritisation of future research and development funds (Refer Objective 6 Section B6).

The handbook we have proposed will bring together in an easy-to-use form all the existing available information on bycatch reduction methods in non trawl fisheries. Access to information and ideas in the handbook will asist in increasing the rate of progress towards ecologcally sustainable fisheries

Objectives

1. To document existing mechanisms used to control bycatch in Australia non trawl fisheries
2. To document existing mechanisms used to control bycatch in comparable fisheries overseas
3. To provide information to fishers about the options for controlling bycatch in their (non-trawl) fishery.
4. To provide information to fishery and environmental managers and the public on existing mechanisms used by the industry for controling bycatch.
5. To provide information to fishery and environmental managers and the public on potential options for controlling bycatch.
6. To provide guidance to industry and fishery managers about R&D priorities with regard to bycatch control options on an individual fishery basis.
Environment
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-200
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Guidelines on a tiered, risk-based approach to bycatch management

The 2018 Commonwealth Fisheries Bycatch Policy (Bycatch Policy) establishes the requirement for bycatch management in Commonwealth-managed fisheries. The Guidelines for the Implementation of the Commonwealth Fisheries Bycatch Policy aim to provide assistance to Australian Government entities...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) ABARES
TAGS
Sustainability
Rac Cmwth
Policy
Fisheries Management
Bycatch
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-014
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Estimating the impacts of management changes on bycatch reduction and sustainability of high-risk bycatch species in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery

Keywords: Discards, elasmobranchs, post-trawl survival, Aptychotrema rostrata, Trygonoptera testacea, turtle excluder device, bycatch reduction device, TEDs, BRDs, ecological risk assessment, ERA Executive Summary: Researchers from the Queensland Government’s Department of...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
TAGS
Rac Qld
Post Harvest
Mortality
Modelling
Fishing Gear
SPECIES
Shovelnose Rays
Rays
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