Lack of knowledge by community has contributed to poor perception of industry and negative community attitudes. Teachers are ill-informed about industry’s efforts to operate in a sustainable manner; once informed-they incorporate better knowledge into their teaching program. The long-term benefits for industry with a better informed community are considerable.
The SIPS-Tasmanian-Pilot indicated teachers have difficulty accessing information about the marine environment, sustainable fishing/marine farm practices, and post-harvest sector. Developing/delivering this information within a metropolitan context is a key challenge of this program. Fishermen/Farmers and the post harvest sector are seeking avenues to engage with their local community to secure their social licence to operate - this program gives them a community a voice and a connection with the next generation. An informed community can actively engage in debate around issues affecting industry and the seafood supply - particularly at point-of-sale. Delivering this information to schoolchildren and teachers in a metropolitan context is key.
With the assistance and support of key groups such as the Sydney Fish Market, Master Fish Merchants of Australia, and NSW Fishermens’ Cooperative Association, and our in-house experience of working with the NSW Department of Education, and with various state-based teachers associations on our 'Our Valuable Estuaries' projects - OceanWatch Australia has the ability, determination and support of industry, to make this project succeed.

School teachers report a difficulty accessing relevant and accurate information about the marine
environment, current sustainable commercial fishing and marine farm practices. This, coupled with a
recognised paucity of young people embarking on a career in the seafood industry indicates a need for
greater interaction between the seafood industry and the educational sector.

A general lack of knowledge about commercial fishing practices in the public arena has contributed to
poor public perception of the seafood industry, and in fact public attitudes to commercial fisheries are
often negative and ill informed.

NSW COMMERCIAL FISHING INDUSTRY
In recent years, the environmental performance of commercial fishing has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly the highly visible fisheries like the NSW estuary fisheries. This trend is likely to continue with the increasing population pressure in NSW coastal areas and greater competing demands on NSW estuarine resources. The fishing industry needs to build community confidence in the way that fisheries are managed in NSW. The recently instituted environmental impact assessment processes and statutory Fishery Management Strategies for the Estuary General Fishery and the Estuary Prawn Trawl fishery are a step in this direction. However, more needs to be done to ensure their widespread adoption by industry, to improve community awareness of the standards and practices by which industry operates, and importantly, to demonstrate that these practices are being employed and the standards achieved.

The project outlined in this application seeks to contribute to this through the development and adoption of Codes of Practice, and in doing so address the need for the development of Codes of Conduct as required by the statutory Fishery Management Strategies, and contribute to the achievement of the broader objectives of the Fisheries Management Strategies. The Codes will provide fishers with regionally-specific guidelines of the acceptable standards, both mandatory minimum standards and voluntary best practice. This will not only facilitate the adoption of acceptable standards across the entire fleets, but will also provide fishers with with a means to ensure that they are operating in accordance with these standards. Furthermore, the regional nature of the Codes will encourage greater ownership by regional fishing communities, and effectively address region-specific issues of concern to local communities.

There is also much interest amongst the NSW fishing industry in third party certification, and in particular Marine Stewardship Council certification, as a means of providing greater assurance to the community and markets. Accordingly, the project will also seek to identify the aspirations and needs of industry in relation to MSC & 3rd party certification, and investigate the options, costs and benefits, and a plan of action for doing so.

NSW OYSTER INDUSTRY
The NSW Oyster Industry does not currently have any unified, industry led environmental management planning. Industry leaders, who see the need for improved environmental practice, are aware that despite their best endeavours, individual initiatives do not receive widespread adoption due to the lack of effective communication, education and incentives.

In response, the Oyster Management Advisory Group established the Ecological Sustainable Development (ESD) Working Group in August 2002. This joint Industry and NSW Fisheries group aims to seek the views and experience of NSW oyster farmers on ESD issues and to lead the strategic adoption of ESD in the industry.

The Ecologically Sustainable Development Working Group has identified a program of initiatives, the first of which is to prepare an industry code of conduct. This initiative will create an opportunity to discuss ESD issues in industry forums; and, will set uniform environmental performance indicators and benchmarks across the industry. Subsequent initiatives will aim to build on the code of conduct to prepare an Environmental Code of Practice and Environmental Management System.

It has been suggested that the use of hoppers in prawn trawl fisheries can minimise the effects on bycatch species. Preliminary results from both the Queensland pilot study and research in SA’s Spencer Gulf Prawn trawl fishery support these suggestions. The uptake of hoppers in Australian prawn trawl fisheries is increasing, however, a coordinated and cooperative research approach to quantitatively determine the effects of hoppers has not been attempted.NORMAC’s Bycatch Action Plan has identified research into the effects of hoppers on bycatch survival as a ‘high priority’. The East Coast Trawl Plan also includes the need to reduce bycatch by 40% by 2005 and flags that hoppers could assist achieve this target. SARDI have proposed that hoppers, used as part of a suite of bycatch mitigation devices, could improve bycatch survival.