Knowledge of the winter/spring spawning patterns of Blue Mackerel and Australian Sardine is needed to underpin future assessment of these stocks and to underpin the ecologically sustainable development of pelagic fish resources off the East Coast of Australia.

Recent and robust estimates the population size of Blue Mackerel and Australian Sardine off the East Coast are needed to address community concerns regarding the potential ecological impacts of large scale fishing for small pelagic fishes off the East Coast.

Information on the egg distribution, reproductive parameters and spawning biomass of Tailor is needed to inform future management of this iconic recreational fishing species.

The salmonid aquaculture industry is worth about $400 million to the Tasmanian economy and directly employs over 1200 people. This industry has plans to double production by 2030, which will require finding new localities for farms that are conducive to large scale production. Storm Bay has been identified as a potential growth area and baseline environmental data are essential to inform site selection and for future assessments of any effects of salmon production on the Storm Bay environment, i.e. ensuring the industry is sustainable. Concomitant with this development is the need to establish social acceptability and to meet public expectations of a sustainable industry; this project will provide the baseline data necessary to support these requirements.

Information to be provided by this project on changing environmental conditions such as temperature, salinity and nutrients, and concentrations of planktonic organisms harmful to salmon production, such as HABs and jellyfish, which are related to changing weather patterns and current flows, are also very important to farm management, especially to risk assessments underpinning Decision Support Systems. Specifically, the project will ensure a thorough understanding of how major water masses interact in Storm Bay to influence nutrient flux, algal dynamics and responses of key plankton, including HABs and jellyfish.

The FRDC released the Status of Key Australian Fish Stocks Reports in 2012 to provide a scientifically robust, simple tool to inform fishers, seafood consumers, managers, policy makers and the broader community about the stock status of key wild-caught fish stocks around Australia. This publication was prepared by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, in collaboration with government fishery research agencies in all Australian jurisdictions with marine fisheries, an enormous task that involved cooperation from over 80 researchers.

The collation of data from 49 different species (or species complexes) from around Australia required cross-jurisdictional cooperation in determining assessments. This process highlighted the differences in data collected between agencies in terms of quality, quantity and format, which greatly increased the effort required to prepare the Reports.

The second edition of this series is being prepared during 2014, and it is anticipated that it will be repeated every second year. The effort and cost of producing the report could be significantly reduced if the data used to inform assessments was standardised across jurisdictions, and was readily available through a fisheries data portal. Further, making this data publically available through the website would allow the public to run their own queries, increasing transparency, reducing red tape and creating other efficiencies.

Before this can be done however, there is a need for greater understanding of the challenges involved in mapping fisheries data collected by different agencies. Given the large number of fisheries agencies around Australia, and the variety of data they collect and/or generate, this proposal is for a pilot study focusing on data collected by SA and NT, who have agreed to participate.

Australia’s aquarium industries are high value (collectively GVP values >$20 million), small scale fisheries that rely on exporting CITES listed corals for profitability and viability. The Australian government requires fisheries collecting and exporting CITES listed species to demonstrate that their harvest is sustainable. This is achieved through the provision of a successful non-detrimental finding and accrediting the fishery as an approved Wildlife Trade Operation (WTO) under the EPBC Act. There is growing international pressure for Australia to unequivocally demonstrate sustainable collection practices for CITES listed species. However, data-poor fisheries like the aquarium fisheries, struggle to provide sufficient quantitative data supporting the non-detrimental use of CITES listed species. This has resulted in severe restrictions on allowable harvest levels tied to WTO approvals and industry viability is at risk.

Many of the coral species taken by the marine aquarium industry across northern Australia are in inter-reef turbid water environments that are poorly studied. In addition, many of the species are documented as rare or uncommon although they may be locally abundant in these turbid waters environments. A recent Ecological Risk Assessment of the Queensland Coral Fishery (May 2013) identified the priority need to fill these data gaps to better quantify the level of impact on corals from commercial collection.

Abundance baselines for these species are required to demonstrate sustainable use and support export approvals. Species identification of harvested corals also needs to be clarified as this information is critical for aligning catch data with scientific information on the vulnerability of different coral species. This will lead to the development of monitoring protocols for the industry, and in the longer term, to demonstrate sustainable harvest.