Completing Australia’s First National Bycatch Report
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.
Final report
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.
Developing a National Bycatch Reporting System
Bycatch Solutions: a handbook for fishers in non-trawl fisheries "communications File"
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