Adapt or Fail: Risk management and business resilience in Queensland commercial fisheries
Change is inevitable, whether it be management, environmental, or economic change. Improving how industries cope with and adapt to change becomes increasingly important as rates and cumulative impacts of change escalate. Some commercial fishing operators are better able to cope with, and adapt to change than others. In part this is due to the inherent capabilities of some individuals to cope with change, learn, plan, and manage risk – elements we can measure through resilience frameworks (Marshall and Marshall, 2007). Other differences relate to access to adaptation options, which may rely on factors such as business structure, diversity of operation, access to information and financial capacity. We do not yet know the specific role such factors play in improving adaption options and hence resilience.
What we do know is that more resilient operators are better able to cope with change and adapt to it, and that these operators are less likely to seek compensation when change occurs (Sutton and Tobin 2012). Given these findings, it is vital that we identify factors that improve access to and uptake of adaption options, and that factors constraining uptake of these options are identified. We need to develop appropriate communication tools that relate to the nature of risks faced by fishing operations depending on their current behaviour and business structure, options for change, and access to / uptake of information. We also need to assess possible management options which could reduce some constraints on adaptation and hence increase resilience.
This proposal meets QFRAB priority #2 (business models in relation to resilience), and FRDC’s “Resilient and supportive communities” Strategic Challenge.
Final report
This study sought to explore how different types of fishing businesses adapted to different types of change within Queensland’s east coast fisheries. The project team first sought to classify fishing businesses into ‘types’, exploring the industry structure in a new and innovative way, given the diversity of business capacity and mobility, and the overlap between fishery types on Queensland’s east coast. Through surveys of just over 200 fishing businesses, they then explored what types of change and challenges different business types were exposed to and / or constrained by, whether businesses were able to successfully adapt to these changes or challenges, and if there were any specific driving characteristics that improved the likelihood of success. The aim was to identify common challenges and constraints, and ideally to lead to recommendations of what different fishing business types could do to adapt their business in the face of ongoing environmental, economic and management change.
