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Environment
People

Reviewing solutions to reduce unwanted fisher interactions with elasmobranchs

Project number: 2023-012
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $375,390.00
Principal Investigator: Jonathon D. Mitchell
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Project start/end date: 14 Feb 2024 - 14 Oct 2026
Contact:
FRDC

Need

This project will build on the 2022 FRDC National Workshop on Shark Depredation (project number 2021-038) and have four complementary phases through: (1) a detailed review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature to identify and assess the efficacy of the most recently developed mitigation methods, (2) a survey of the scientific community and fishing-industry stakeholders (i.e. fishers, industry representatives, managers) to identify lesser known methods developed and/or used by fishers, (3) a series of workshops to identify the most promising approaches for mitigating depredation and plan the design of field trials, with a stop/go point occurring at the end of this phase based on whether suitable methods are found, and if so, (4) a robust experimental trial of the most promising mitigation method(s) to assess their effectiveness at reducing shark depredation. Phase 4 would be dependent on whether suitable methods can be identified through Phases 1–3. Stakeholder involvement and outreach will be a critical part of this project across all phases. The findings of this project will be widely disseminated via presentations to fishing clubs and industry members, written articles in the FRDC and fishing magazines, a final project report and subsequent peer reviewed publications. All off these outreach activities will be conducted in collaboration with the FRDC Extension Officer network. This will ensure broad adoption of the identified depredation mitigation measure(s).

Objectives

1. Review the existing peer-reviewed and grey literature to collate information on the range of methods trialled to date for reducing shark interactions with fishing and assess their relative effectiveness
2. Survey of the scientific community and fishing-industry stakeholders (i.e. fishers, industry representatives, managers) to identify lesser known methods developed and/or used by fishers which may not have been formally discussed or tested in the peer-reviewed or grey literature.
3. Conduct industry workshops to identify the most promising and practical approaches for mitigating depredation and plan a robust experimental design for future trials
4. Based on the outcomes of Objectives 1–3, conduct robust experimental trials of the most promising mitigation method(s)
5. Extend the results of the workshops and on-water testing to the wider fishing community to facilitate broad adoption of the tested mitigation method(s) (should they prove effective)

Sea Change: co-developing pathways to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia

Project number: 2023-011
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $1,628,586.00
Principal Investigator: Gretta T. Pecl
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 31 Oct 2023 - 30 Apr 2027
Contact:
FRDC

Need

There is a need to increase effective engagement between fishing and aquaculture stakeholders and climate science and scientists in an ongoing strategic way, and not ‘just’ for single-project outcomes.

Improved engagement will help increase understanding of the likely implications of a changing climate in relevant contexts, and lay foundations for a shared exploration of available options for reducing risk exposure. We have worked with stakeholders and the FRDC Extension Officer Network to design a strategy that will engage fishing and aquaculture stakeholders on existing knowledge regarding risks and opportunities associated with a changing climate, to enable resource managers and researchers to better understand the ways in which many sectors are already adapting autonomously and to identify the barriers to further adaptation, and to co-design solutions that are relevant at local- and industry-levels to help build climate-ready communities and to stimulate economic resilience.

In many cases (but not all), extensive information regarding marine climate change - including key risks to fisheries and aquaculture producers (at a high level) - is already available, along with information on how to develop adaptation plans. However, despite this, progress and uptake within most sectors in terms of planned adaptation responses has been very slow – although many individual operators are already making ‘autonomous’ changes to their day-to-day operations in response to climate change drivers. If these changes are being made without access to best available knowledge, then it is very likely that substantial portions of these responses are maladaptive in the longer term, or may be countervailing to planned government adaptations (see Pecl et al 2019, Ambio, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-019-01186-x). This is a pattern evident within many different industries around Australia and across the rest of the world. ‘What’ needs to happen has thus been outlined in general terms in many cases, but such information is not co-developed or provided in consultation with end-users in ways that resonate or are useful to them. This project will address this need for relevance and usefulness.

The project aims to develop reflexive, ongoing, and two-way knowledge exchange between industry representatives, operators and manager, and the marine climate change impacts and adaptation research sector, so that solutions are co-designed, usable, and adoptable.

Objectives

1. Work with seafood industry leaders to establish two-way climate conversations that can strengthen and underpin Australian fishing and aquaculture’s resilience to a changing climate. This approach will facilitate co-design of pathways to increase agility and build capacity for climate change adaptation with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations. This process will also create a model that can be applicable to other RDC’s.
2. Create a climate conversations platform to facilitate knowledge exchange (including identifying ‘gaps’ and shared issues), and thus capture, disseminate, and showcase:a. How fishing and aquaculture sectors are already adapting and responding to recent changesb. What has facilitated these changes made, and what the barriers are to further adaptationc. The story of fishing and aquaculture’s efforts towards achieving climate resilience - using a dynamic ‘story map’ approach, and other multi-media, communicate progress to target audiences.
3. Identify a) key factors influencing the agility of fisheries and aquaculture to adapt to climate change, and b) which factors (e.g. opportunities) are most important for adaptation capacity-building for different types of operations - building on work underway across multiple domestic and international projects and working groups.
4. Co-develop pathways, with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations, to increase their agility and build sector capacity for climate change adaptation and resilience.
5. Support the development of communities of practice for groups of fisheries and/or aquaculture operations that have similar opportunities and pathways – to support increased agility and capacity building for climate change adaptation (determined in objective 3).
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