Commercial in confidence. To know more about this project please contact FRDC.

Over the next 3 years, the FRDC’s Circular Economy Program plans to deliver five separate initiatives that will educate and engage stakeholders and communities. The program has been designed to support the FRDC’s Vision “Fish Forever 2030: Collaborative, vibrant fishing and aquaculture, creating diverse benefits from aquatic resources, and celebrated by the community” to enable the transformation of regions to be more circular, working to improve industrial symbiosis and engagement with stakeholders, and in doing so, build resilience to climate change.

The RCC convenes a network of organisations to deliver circularity initiatives. Informed and powered by two global circular economy design and strategic delivery partners, KPMG Australia, and Rabobank, coupled with education and research institutions Charles Sturt University (CSU) and University of Wollongong (UOW), this program has been designed around the ‘Principles of Resilience’ with an embedded impact evaluation framework (at both program and project level) to measure outcomes and monitor performance. Key industry groups and participants in the ecosystem, for example Sapphire Coast Wilderness Oysters, Fishing Co-ops, mussel farmers, Ocean2 Earth, Pentarch, seaweed businesses, and so on, may be engaged throughout the process as appropriate. Other agencies such as Local Land Services and Department of Regional NSW may also play a role.

It should be noted, there are many participants yet to be engaged, for example Oysters Australia, Oceanwatch, NSW Farmers, DPI Fisheries (Aquaculture), all of whom will have done some work on moving towards a more sustainable industry, upon which the program will be built.

This industry consultation needs to be collated to assist the Australian seafood industry provide a nationally co-ordinated and well-informed response to a review of AMSA legislation.

There is a need for a nationally co-ordinated and well-informed seafood industry response to a review of the AMSA legislation. SIA has engaged with industry nationally and the need to respond in a collective submission that is reflective of the views of Australia’s seafood industry

In addition, there is a need for subsequent interpretation of the outputs from the AMSA legislation review to aid industry in understanding the implications of the findings. This industry consultation needs to be collated to assist the Australian seafood industry provide a nationally co-ordinated and well-informed response to a review of AMSA legislation.

There is an opportunity to create a new partnership with the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation (ARFF) to aggregate information from a regional and jurisdictional level to a national forum with the view to provide advise the FRDC in prioritising strategic and tactical investments in RD&E to deliver positive outcomes for the Australian recreational sector.
An ARFF – FRDC partnership could be extend beyond simply prioritisation, to include establishing opportunities for effective and targeted extension and adoption of R&D outputs to effect cultural and behavioural changes within recreational sector beneficiaries.
A properly resourced and coordinated collaboration may also identify opportunities for co-investment with traditional and non-traditional sources, particularly those linked to the ARFF network.
This proposal looks to formalise a partnership between the recreational fishing sector and the FRDC and outlines the structure, function, resourcing and phases of that partnership model.
The effective delivery of this partnership model will in turn derive benefits to the recreational sector, its supporters, the broader Australian community, and the FRDC through the delivery of the R&D Plan 2020-2025.