The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) is the only endemic species of Australian pinniped and is listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC Act due to historical reduction in numbers, declining population trends, limited biological productivity and continued bycatch in various fisheries. Measures to mitigate sea lion mortality in the Commonwealth's Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery include extensive gillnet fishing closures that have led to significant displacement of fishing effort. Despite the measures to protect South Australian sea lion colonies, pup production has been estimated to have declined at most South Australian colonies and overall by 2.9% per year or 4.4% per breeding cycle between 2004-2008 and 2014-2015 (Goldsworthy et al., 2015).

Gillnet exclusion areas have also been proposed in the Western Australian Demersal Gillnet and Demersal Longline Fisheries, however these have not yet been implemented, in part due to uncertainties in the current status of most Western Australian sea lion colonies and risk of unintended consequences from displaced fishing effort. Despite the high level of conservation concern for this species and the severity of fishery management measures aimed at reducing their bycatch mortality, abundance has not been estimated for most WA colonies since the early-1990s (Gales 1993). Contemporary assessments of colony status are therefore required to identify the WA colonies that are most at risk from depletion (either through fisheries bycatch or other natural or anthropogenic processes) and guide effective conservation decisions.

Historically, monitoring has involved a 'boots-on-the-ground' approach to count the numbers of pups being born. However, this approach is expensive, logistically difficult, hazardous and entirely dependent on accurate estimation of the timing of colony-specific pupping seasons. It is therefore proposed to evaluate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of remote camera methods to collect alternative sea lion abundance estimates.

Given increasing complexity in fisheries management and additional scrutiny on managers, there is a need for fisheries managers from the different jurisdictions to meet as a group to exchange ideas and initiatives and build networks. The Australian Fisheries Management Forum (AFMF), comprised of the respective heads of Commonwealth and State/Territory management agencies, supports the need for such a forum.

Similar cross-fertilisation forums exist between researchers through the Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) and the National Compliance Committee for compliance officers.

It has been a considerable period since fisheries managers workshops were last held. Previous workshops occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. In March 2014, a two-day national fisheries management workshop was held in Adelaide at the South Australian Aquatic Sciences Centre. This workshop was overseen by the AFMF’s Fisheries Management Sub-Committee (FMSC), with funding support from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC). Recommendations arising from this workshop included convening a subsequent fisheries managers workshop in 12-24 months and the formation of an Australian Professional Fisheries Management Society.

As an interim arrangement pending the potential formation of a professional fisheries managers society as a chapter of ASFB, the FMSC has agreed to hold another fisheries managers workshop, which Queensland will host in October 2017.

Future workshops will be held to coincide with ASFB annually (starting in 2018).

The farming of quality Australian abalone is a profitable industry, producing an estimated total ~1,000 tonnes live weight with a value of $35 million in the financial year ending July 2017. Notably, over the next 10 years, abalone production is forecast to increase by >300% to ~3,600 tonnes with an estimated total value of ~$120 million based on current day market prices. However, in order to facilitate this growth, detailed knowledge pertaining to the nutritional requirements of farmed abalone species is paramount. Currently, hybrid abalone culture is carried out via the provision of feeds developed specifically for greenlip abalone. While these feeds promote good growth and survival in both species, it is considered that the ideal protein ratio requirements of abalone may vary in relation to temperature (season), age (stage of growth) and species, (greenlip vs. hybrid). The issue is further exacerbated by varying, and site specific environmental conditions; especially high summer temperatures causing incidents of elevated mortality; and low winter temperatures suppressing growth. As such, on-farm performance of hybrid abalone has significant scope for improvement via nutritional intervention. Carefully planned and targeted RD&E effort that builds on the nutritional knowledge amassed for greenlip abalone therefore has the capacity to make rapid steps in relation to the productivity of the hybrid abalone aquaculture industry. Those gains are in turn expected to be transferable back to greenlip aquaculture.

The Australian Abalone Growers Association has identified ‘Nutrition’ as an RD&E investment priority in its 2015-2020 Strategic Plan, with a Strategic Goal to ‘Implement a Nutrition Program for Health, Survivorship and Meat Weight Gain’. This project will assist industry in achieving its projected growth within the time-frame of AAGA’s Strategic Plan by developing formulated feeds that are tailored to the major seasonal trends experienced by the abalone farming industry. Depending on the differences found in nutritional requirements this may result in the development of age/size-specific, temperature/season-specific and/or species-specific diets.

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is seeking expressions of interest for the revision of the following AQUAVETPLAN Operational Procedures manuals:
1. Decontamination
2. Disposal
The Australian Aquatic Veterinary Emergency Plan (AQUAVETPLAN) is a series of manuals that outline Australia’s approach to national disease preparedness and propose the technical response and control strategies to be activated in a national aquatic animal disease emergency.

The Decontamination manual was first published in 2008, and the second version of the Disposal manual was published in 2009. Both manuals require revision to reflect new scientific knowledge, and to ensure that decontamination and disposal procedures used for disease control purposes reflect current ‘best-practice’ approaches.